


Impatience

by mmmdraco



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-17
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-10 04:06:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 27,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hikaru just can't wait any more. If Akira won't read the signals, he's going to have to be blunt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Impatience

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Hikaru took a second look at the board. "Sagari?"

Akira looked at him strangely. "Yes. Sagari. I'm glad you remember what it's called. You *have* been a go pro for a while now."

Sticking his tongue out at the other boy, Hikaru set his next stone. "I don't know. That's just not what I think should come next. I thought you'd use a sabari, and then sagari after I went for tengen."

Looking at Hikaru appraisingly, Akira smiled and took tengen for himself. "That's why."

Hikaru attached to the group in the corner, drawing Akira's gaze. "You wanted tengen for what? There's still too much up in the air in the center."

"Because you attached there instead of going here on the diagonal. You just relinquished control of that corner so my tengen hand connects to the opposite corner when I'm holding strong. In five moves, I'll have the board."

Hikaru's eyes widened in fury. "Not if I do this!"

Akira glared at the stone Hikaru placed and scowled at Hikaru. "Okay. Not if you do that."

Smirking, Hikaru watched as a flustered Akira used keima instead of ogeima. "That was a mistake."

Continuing to scowl at his opponent, Akira slammed down another stone in response to Hikaru's own. "It wasn't a mistake. I don't make those -- not like you." He filled the last word with loathing.

Hikaru laughed. "I guess I should just say it's the first step in your loss, although underestimating me -- like always -- was probably the real first step."

Akira suddenly burst into laughter. "It's hard to do this! I can play like you if I act like you, but I can't act like you because you're being ridiculous."

Taking a drink of his soda, Hikaru smiled. "It's sort of fun to play as you, though. I don't know how you win with all of these standard responses."

Akira was about to retort that Hikaru still hadn't beaten him, but realized that, for once, "his" tactics were failing. He still wondered why he'd agreed to play like Hikaru while Hikaru played like him. He looked at Hikaru, his eyes fierce. "It's my intimidation factor."

"You don't intimidate me, though. So why don't I ever beat you?"

Akira laughed and placed another stone. "That would be your stupidity factor."

"Haha So, ramen after this?" Hikaru haphazardly added to a formation near the upper komoku.

"Only if its a different place than last time. My mouth burns just thinking about the kimchee ramen I had." Akira attached.

"Wuss." Hikaru placed a stone with an eerie sense of finality. "It's too bad you can't think like yourself when you're playing like me. Then you'd be unbeatable."

"That's like... oh, wait! That's like now!"

"You should resign. This is hopeless."

"I can't. My pride is on the line."

"And dinner."

"At least ramen is cheap."

"So are you."

Akira surrounded one of Hikaru's stones and placed it in his goke's lid. "I'm not for sale."

Hikaru looked at him with a smug grin. "Wish you were. I'd save up for you -- all the more reason to win a few titles."

"That's almost... sweet... except that I know you're devious. I'm not sure that I'd trust you to own me."

"I'd keep you in my bed."

The statement was said innocently, but Akira's cheeks flushed bright red. "Shindou."

"And I'd make you call me 'Hikaru'."

"Why would you want me for something like that?"

The game forgotten, Hikaru fingered a stone lightly. "Why wouldn't I want you? You're my best friend, you're a great go player, and, let's face it, you are... attractive."

"Shindou, as much as I appreciate the sentiment, we're both males."

"I've read up on that. Seems the sex is great."

Akira's cheeks were quick to redden again. "Anyway! You wouldn't want me. I'm a bad cook. I can't even boil water right."

"So I'll cook. I've gotten good. I can even cook other stuff than ramen!"

Akira looked a bit shocked. "I'm a neat freak."

"I'm messy and can never find anything."

"I have a lot of hair care products!"

Hikaru fingered his blonde bangs. "Me too."

"I hate keeping pets."

"It's impractical for as much as we travel."

"Studying..."

"Who cares? We can play go every night and every morning."

"Okay."

"What?"

"I said, 'Okay'. That sounds nice."

"Okay." Hikaru nodded, almost to himself. "So, should we go looking for a place to live together, or do you just want to da-date for a bit first?"

"We can live together as friends and co-workers... of a sort... either way. Didn't you say the apartment next to Waya's opened up? And Isumi moved in a few blocks away?"

"Yeah."

"Let's look there. We could have go parties."

Hikaru smiled at the idea. "That could be... fun. And then maybe I could get the game back that I loaned Waya. He keeps 'forgetting' it because such and such a match is coming up."

"It could work."

Hikaru set down the stone he'd been playing with. "It could. We make enough money for it, especially between the two of us. It's only a station away from the Go Association. We could..." His eyes opened wide. "We can pin up kifu on the walls as much as we want!" Akira raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. "What? My mom doesn't let me do it."

"A landlord probably wouldn't either."

"And sleeping?"

Reaching out a hand and touching Hikaru's lips with a callused fingertip, Akira smiled. "We'll worry about that after we have a place to stay. When do you want to go looking?" He sat back again.

"Tonight?"

Akira laughed. "When did I start liking your impatience?"

"As long as you like me, I don't care."

"Shindou... You're very... likable." He stood up from the table. "Shall we?"

"You mean it?" Hikaru hopped to his feet. "Right now? But the game..."

"We wouldn't want to disturb the landlord much later than this. And, okay, I resign. That last move was brilliant... just like something I would do."

Hikaru stood shock-still for a moment before running after Akira. "Touya! Let's discuss the game on the way over."

"We discussed it all the way through."

"Hnn... that's true." His head shot up in surprise. "We didn't fight! Not once!"

Akira smiled and opened the door for Hikaru. "That's true. By the way, you're paying for dinner."

"But you resigned! That means I win, and you pay for dinner."

"Ah, but you still have to buy me. Aren't I worth a few bowls of ramen at least?"

Hikaru laughed. "Definitely. But you only get one bowl!"

The two young men, barely seventeen, stepped out into the evening. This day was going to change everything.


	2. Visiting Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hi! We're your new neighbors!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Waya heard a knock on his door as he was leafing through the latest issue of Weekly Go while eating Chinese takeout. He got up, setting his chopsticks down on top of the container. He wondered briefly who it was as he wasn't expecting anyone for another few hours. He opened the door to see Hikaru grinning wildly. "Shindou? What are you doing here?"

Giving Waya a thumbs up, Hikaru said, "Hi! We're your new neighbors."

"We?" Waya raised an eyebrow and looked past Hikaru to see Touya Akira standing behind him, looking almost demure as he tried to blend in with the wall. "Touya?! Shindou, you're moving in with Touya? Why?"

"Because... well, because we're dating."

Several hours later, Waya was still dizzy. But passing out and hitting one's head against the doorframe did that sometimes. Hikaru and Akira were still sitting with him, worried that he had a concussion.

Isumi, upon his arrival, was worried. He didn't remember there being a huge dent and a small bloodstain on Waya's door. He knocked and was surprised when Akira opened the door for him. "Um... Touya? Where's Waya?"

"He's -- concussed, we think. He's by the go board. Shindou's playing him in a blind game to test his consciousness."

"What happened?" Isumi asked, knowing full well that he probably didn't really want to know.

Akira pointed to the dent and the bloodstain. "That's what happened. And if you know what's good for you, you'll lay down on the floor on your back before asking anything else. Even a fall from a sitting position can be hazardous to one's health."

Isumi chose to stay silent as he followed Touya inside. With as small as the apartment was, he didn't have far to go to see Waya bright-eyed and smiling, lying on the floor with a wet cloth across his forehead while calling out go moves. He paused when Isumi came into sight. "Hi, 'Sumi. Meet my new neighbors!"

Taking a long breath, Isumi lay down on the floor. "Okay. Tell me."

Hikaru set down his own stone while saying, "14-7." He held his fingers up in the air in a V. "Touya and I -- we're dating!"

Isumi did not faint, but felt sure that the floorboards had been pulled out from beneath him. He was willing to bet that the resulting dizziness was an equal match for Waya's at the moment. "For how long?"

Hikaru checked his watch. "Three hours, forty-seven minutes, and... some seconds."

"Isn't this a bit sudden?" Isumi sat up and looked closely at Akira who was blushing slightly.

"We've known each other for *years* now, Isumi. We don't even yell when we play go anymore."

"Oh."

Waya sat up from the floor, the wet cloth flying across the room. "'Oh'!? You find out that the two most eligible bachelors of the go world, that we keep getting turned down by girls because of, are gay and your response is 'OH'?!"

"I'm not gay," Hikaru said.

Akira looked at him, his expression blank. "Shindou, I'm male. You're male. We're dating. If you're not gay, you're confused about something."

"Well, I just -- it's not that you're a guy. It's that you're you."

Waya collapsed back onto the floor. "You're nuts. You're completely nuts and you're going to be living next door to me. Both of you. I really need to remember to lock my doors."

"Waya," Isumi said calmly, "You're rambling."

Quieting quickly, Waya looked over at Hikaru and Akira who were looking at each other over the go board. He realized that it was strange to see them together when they were *not* playing go.

Not much later that evening, Hikaru and Akira took their leave. They were planning to come back the next day with the first loads of their belongings.

Akira stretched his neck slowly as they walked down the sidewalk. "Well, this has been an eventful day. I don't see how tomorrow could top it."

Hikaru smiled mysteriously. "Tomorrow will be interesting."

"Why do you say that?" Akira raised an eyebrow, stopping midstep.

"Because," Hikaru said after turning to face Akira, "tomorrow, we'll have to tell our parents." Akira's eyes widened. "And once we're moved in, I have to tell you about Sai."

"Shindou!"

"It's important... but I won't tell you until we're moved in."

Akira smiled. "I guess I'll start packing tonight."

They came to the place where they would part ways. "Well, I guess this is goodnight."

Reaching up to touch Hikaru's cheek with his fingertips, Akira smiled. "No. This is." He pressed a tender kiss to Hikaru's lips and walked away.

Hikaru was tempted to follow him or call after him, but knew that this was like sealing a move. Tomorrow... play would resume.


	3. Movement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unpacking, and talking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Hikaru wiped a speck of dust off of his go board and smiled. Akira looked over at his board and raised an eyebrow. "Whose board are we actually going to put where?"

Furrowing his brow, Hikaru looked around the already-cramped apartment. "Um, this one in the bedroom?"

Akira shook his head and began unwrapping one of his goke. "I've already got my other board in there."

Hikaru smiled. "Great! Then we can have breakfast in bed and still play go!" He looked around for a moment, then grinned smugly. "We'll just keep both in here."

"There isn't enough room, Shindou."

Hikaru moved Akira's board closer to the wall and his own closer to Akira's. "There you go, Touya. Now there's room. And this way we can have people over to play, or we can study separately, or we can play two games at once!"

Akira raised an eyebrow at him and removed the other goke from the box that his mother had helped him pack. "Do you want to play a game now? Just one... We have to leave in a little while to go get another load of our belongings, but a single game couldn't hurt, right?"

Sliding across the tatami mats on his knees, Hikaru came to rest before Akira and wrapped his arms around him. "This is why you're the best boyfriend in the world." He looked nervous for a moment, then kissed Akira quickly before sliding back to the other side of the board. "Of course I'd like to play. Nigiri?"

Hikaru took black. Akira took white. After fuseki, they started talking. Hikaru began the conversation as he capped a formation. "How did your parents take it?"

Akira responded with a diagonal play. "My mother looked like she was going to cry, but I've talked to her about moving out before. About the, er, other thing? She made me wash my mouth out with soap and then say it again. I'm not sure what difference it made except that my tea tasted funny. But she helped me pack up and made me promise to come home at least once a week to get some food. She wants you to come with me if you can... at least the first time."

"And your father?" Hikaru connected to his komoku stone.

Laughing quietly, Akira looked at Hikaru and smiled. "He looked almost shocked when I told him, but not for the reasons I was expecting. He thought we'd been dating for a while and didn't say anything about it because he was glad to see me with a good go player. He was also expecting me to move out soon, so it wasn't a terrible situation -- just awkward... with really bad-tasting tea. How about your parents?" Akira used a furukami to great effect.

Hikaru made a face at Akira's move and responded with a hiraki. "My mom laughed and looked scared for a minute, then asked if I was serious. She accepted it, though, and has also invited you over for dinner whenever we get the chance. She was trying to give me money, but I couldn't take it. The place where Dad works hasn't been doing too well lately, so I've been sneaking money *into* her purse whenever I know she's going shopping. Dad... well, I haven't really talked to him a lot since I started playing go. I told him I was moving out and he looked... sad and a bit relieved. If nothing else, the electric bill will go down without me there. The water bill, too."

Akira looked concerned for a moment before he hardened his expression just a bit and placed a kikashi near Hikaru's hiraki. "Were you planning to move out even if I didn't agree?"

"I was..." Hikaru smiled weakly, using karami. He cleared his throat and looked at Akira again, "I've been planning it, yes. But I've been hinting this to you for over a year. When I made the decision to move out, I realized that things were going to change... a lot. I figured that one big change is a good time for all of the other big changes that need to happen... so I started hinting a bit more, and then coming out and saying some things, and... God, Touya! You're as dense as a go stone sometimes! I told you three weeks ago that you have beautiful eyes and you just put on a pair of sunglasses and kept on reading Weekly Go. I grabbed your ass in the elevator three days after that and you pretended not to notice. I gave you the onion in my ramen that was shaped like a heart!" He sat back and let out a sigh. "Sorry. That was getting to me."

Looking down at the formation on the board, Akira wasn't sure what to say or even what move to play. "I..." He thought back to the incidents and realized that he hadn't thought they were particularly unusual at all. He'd realized it when he'd been grabbed, but hadn't thought much about it. It usually happened at least once during every tournament he went to, so he had learned to ignore it. "Thank you, though, for this. And, although it isn't my place to do it, thank you for being a good son." He rubbed at a dull spot on the stone in his hand and smiled. "Thank you for... for everything, really."

"Even for that one time you thought I was eating ramen out of a goke and you went to slap me and I punched you in the stomach and you bit your lip really hard and bled on your purple shirt?"

Akira took a deep breath and connected on the far side of the formation. "I had almost forgotten about that, but... yes. I hope you brought those bowls with you. They really did look like goke. Also, for your information, that shirt was lavender."

"The bowls are in the kitchen already. And, really... lavender? And you didn't know you were gay?"

Akira bristled and slammed another move onto the board.

Hikaru's eyes went wide. "You just went twice in a row."

"I did n-" But, as soon as Akira looked at the board, he knew that Hikaru was telling the truth. "Shindou, just kill me." He let his head fall forward and shook his head at what he'd done.

"It's okay. Just don't do it again. That just sort of scared me. We're pros. We don't do that kind of thing."

"What are we doing for dinner tonight, Shindou?"

"Um..." Hikaru looked at the mounds of unpacked boxes all around them. "Didn't you say your mother wanted us over for dinner?"

Akira smiled. "I think she was intending for that to be a bit later on, but let me give her a call and it can probably be arranged."

"Great. You keep telling me your mom is a great cook. I want to find out for myself. Then we can decide how often we'll go there for dinner."

Hikaru stood up and stretched out his arms over his head, yawning loudly. "I'm almost finished getting my stuff over here. I just have to bring in my books, really."

"You have books?" Akira looked curious.

"Well... mostly manga. But I have some Japanese classics and some go books and some stuff like that. It takes up maybe two-thirds of the little bookshelf that I have. I'll probably get rid of my desk since we don't have room. If nothing else, we can get a filing cabinet or something and work at the kitchen table."

"You've really thought all of this out, haven't you?" Akira smiled and put his hand on Hikaru's.

Hikaru turned his hand over to grasp Akira's. "Yeah. I have. For months now. I may even have gone so far as to pick the location."

"But I thought you said the people who lived here before us only moved out about a week ago?"

Laughing and reaching up with his free hand to rub his neck a bit, Hikaru smiled haphazardly. "Well, you see, it only takes some fake ghosts and practical jokes before some people just decide they don't want to live where they're living."

"I'm beginning to question whether this was a good idea."

Tightening his grip on Akira, Hikaru smiled. "You know it is or else you wouldn't be here. You're not that kind of guy."

Sighing deeply, Akira nodded slightly. "Okay, so I can tough this out at least a little while longer. But, never do anything like that again."

"Not even if I'm getting you a Christmas present and I see the perfect thing to get you and some snot-nosed little brat has just snapped up the last one and is attempting to drool on it?"

"Okay... maybe then. But, no more apartments!"

"Well, duh. We have one now, so it's no big deal. This was just one that I could afford on my own even if you had said no."

Akira dissolved into laughter again. "You had everything planned, right down to telling me about Sai, didn't you?"

Hikaru shrugged and ran his thumbs in small go-stone-sized circles on the back of Akira's hand. "Maybe."

"You're always one step ahead of me in reading the game, aren't you?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that."

Akira looked surprised. "Oh?"

"Yeah... after all, you kissed me first. I expected you to wait at *least* a week."

"Shindou... that wasn't a surprise move. That was honte."

"Honte?"

"The proper move."

Hikaru grinned and pelted Akira with a go stone. "See? This is why I need you around. I still don't know half of this stuff."

Akira picked up the thrown stone with a sniff and looked at it. "Careful, Shindou. These can get stuck in the oddest places." He smiled suddenly and threw it back at Hikaru. "Now hold on a minute and let me call my mother." He let go of Hikaru's hand slowly and made his way over to his jacket, retrieving his cell phone from his pocket.

Half-listening to Akira's conversation, Hikaru cleaned up the board and closed both goke. Things were changing, yes, but they were changing for the better, or at least the more comfortable. But his mind wandered at the same time, wondering where in the world Akira got gotten a go stone stuck. Really, the possibilities were endless.  
\----------

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----How Akira Knows the Pain of Falling From A Sitting Position----- a drabble

When Akira was just a young boy of about 5 years old, he liked to watch his father play go. But his father's board was too tall for him to sit at like his father and his father's friends did. So Akira practiced in the night sometimes, dragging a shoe box over to the board and kneeling on it and trying to play across the whole board. On the third night that he tried, the shoe box caved in just as he was playing below the first hoshi. He fell forward and hit his forehead on the go board and cried loudly until his mother found him and took him to the hospital. It took five stitches to close. When Hikaru saw it many years later, he remarked that go really was ingrained into Akira's head. Akira, despite laughing, was not amused.


	4. Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While rearranging the bedroom, Akira finds his world in flux.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

"Touya, let's face it. No matter what we do, the only way to fit two futons in this room is to put them side by side."

"But..." Akira blushed slightly and sighed, then began to set out his futon. It was already late, and he had a shidougo session to give at nine the next morning. "Fine. We'll do this your way for tonight. But, tomorrow? I'm rearranging this room again."

"But you've already rearranged it seven times! No matter what we do, you're going to have to sleep close to me." Hikaru looked at Akira with a tinge of sadness in his eyes. "What? Do you think I'm going to jump you in the middle of the night? This is new for me too! I am equally uncomfortable with the idea of saying I'm sleeping with you already!"

Akira smoothed out his pillow and began working on putting Hikaru's right next to his. "It's not that, and you know it. It's just..." He smiled and looked at Hikaru. "You snore. Not a lot, but enough that it'll probably wake me up."

Hikaru slapped his own face with one hand and let it slide back down to rest at his side. He turned around and walked out of the room. Akira stayed put, even as he heard the outer door opening and closing. He clenched his teeth and continued putting the futons to rights, then standing up and straightening the books on the shelves and smoothing the wrinkles out of the curtains. But it wasn't enough to stop himself from thinking. He left the room.

A few minutes later, Akira was back with his bucket of cleaning supplies. He wiped down the walls and cleaned the floors and did the windows. He dusted the ceiling fan and vacuumed up the dust where it fell. Then, he started on the dishes.

Half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. Akira's head shot up to look at it as his hands scrubbed at a burnt patch on the bottom of a pan. He set it down and, with his hands still soapy and dripping, walked over to the door. He opened it and felt his breath catch in his throat to see Hikaru's smiling face. "Sorry. I forgot my key."

Akira took deep breaths and felt himself shaking slightly. "You... I thought you left."

Hikaru heard the hurt in Akira's voice and turned to look at him, his eyes wide in shock. "Touya... you didn't think I-" He reached toward Akira and pulled him close. "Oh, god. No. Don't think that. No. Never."

Still taking shaky breaths, Akira raised his hands to clutch at the back of Hikaru's shirt. "I didn't know what to think. You just stormed off and didn't say anything. How was I supposed to know!?"

"I'm sorry." Hikaru pulled back and raised his hands to rest on Akira's shoulders. "I should have explained. But I was trying to do something nice."

"Nice?" Akira lay his head down on Hikaru's shoulder. "Where did you go?"

Hikaru laughed and rubbed his thumb along Akira's jaw. "I went to the combini down the street. And the one further down. And then the one across the street. And, about three others. You see, I was looking for something." He pulled away for a moment and opened up a bag he'd brought with him. He took out the box inside and showed it to Akira. "See? Nose strips. They'll, uh, stop the snoring."

Akira wasn't sure if he was laughing or crying as he buried his face in Hikaru's neck and trembled. "This is just like you to be so busy going off on this half-cocked idea that you don't even think about telling me. Shindou, I hate you sometimes."

"Do you really?" Akira looked up to see raw emotion painting Hikaru's face, his eyes bright with honesty. "Because I..." He swallowed quickly. "I can leave if you want me to."

"Do you want to leave?" Akira rubbed his temples and was very tempted to kick the other boy for giving him cause for a headache.

"Of course not!" Hikaru grabbed Akira's hand gently. "I want to stay here with you. Why else would I have asked you!?"

"I don't know! Why would you fall in... something... with someone like me?"

"You mean love?"

"Well... I sort of assumed..."

"Yeah." Hikaru smiled and reached up to brush a strand of Akira's hair away from his eyes. "Yeah. I think I love you."

"You can't mean that?"

"Why not?"

Akira looked at the floor. He wanted to say they were too young, or it was too soon, or maybe not soon enough, or that he definitely couldn't share a bedroom with a guy who could already say he loved him, but knew that he didn't really agree with any of them. "You can't mean it... because I can't say it yet."

"But how do you feel?" Hikaru always had a retort.

"Honestly, Shindou? I feel like my head is going to explode. I feel like my fingers are going to burn tomorrow when I play. I feel like I won't get to sleep tonight even if you don't snore because I'll be too busy trying to figure out what I feel to shut off my brain and do what I need to do."

"Do you want some ibuprofen? And some juice?" Hikaru touched his cheek softly.

Akira sank into the warm contact and nodded. "Yes, please."

"It's okay, you know." He looked at Akira, smiling, before heading to the kitchen with him in tow. "You don't have to say anything. The fact that you got so worried says a lot. I'm sorry again for not saying anything. You know I usually act before I think. Forgive me?" He handed Akira two ibuprofen and a small glass of orange juice.

Akira took the medicine and juice gratefully and downed them both. "This time? Yes. Next time? No."

"I guess I'll have to be careful, then." Hikaru took the glass and rinsed it in the sink. "I don't want to lose you, you know. I lose *to* you often enough, and that's quite enough loss for me."

Akira tried to change the subject. "Sai?"

Hikaru laughed, but Akira heard the hint of sadness behind it. "That's right. I was going to tell you tonight. Do you mind it if waits? It's a long story, and something that means a lot to me..."

"Okay." Akira smiled softly. "You can tell me after you beat me in a tournament game."

"But we won't even have one for another three months!"

Akira's smile grew. "I know. But you don't sound ready to tell it yet. So, I want to give you more time."

"Touya Akira... have I told you yet that you're the world's best boyfriend?"

"Maybe... but I can stand to hear it again." Touya laughed.

Hikaru picked up Akira and spun him around. "Let's go to bed. We've got a big day tomorrow."

"What are we doing tomorrow? I thought we had everything unpacked. Don't we?" Akira looked around the apartment slowly.

"Well, we have to rearrange the bedroom, don't we? And then we're going to my parents' house for a late lunch, and then Isumi is having a party... oh, but you've got shidougo in the morning, so all of that can wait a bit, and I can go give Waya that game he's been asking for, and-"

Akira cut him off with a kiss. "Shindou, you talk too much. Let's just go to bed. And, maybe the bedroom is fine like it is afterall."

"You're not going to divide the room with tape, are you?"

Akira paused, but shook his head at the idea. "No. But you will continue to learn how to cook in exchange for me cleaning."

"That," Hikaru said as he started to head back to the bedroom, "is a deal."

Akira found that he slept quite soundly with Hikaru by his side.  
\----------

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----How Akira Knows About the Bad Places Go Stones Go----- a drabble

Akira tugged at his mother's skirt. "Mommy?"

She looked down at him, startled by the strange quality to his voice. "Akira? Is something wrong, sweetie?" She looked at him more closely. "Why are you holding your nose?"

"Ashiwara threw a go stone and it broke and part of it got me." Touya continued to keep his hand over his nose.

"Did it hurt a lot? Oh, let me see." She pulled the boy's hand away and gasped loudly to see half of a black go stone stuck in her son's nostril with a thin trail of blood coming from it. "Akira? Mommy's going to get her coat and we're going to go see Dr. Ishida, okay?"

"Okay, mommy."

Akira's mother briefly wondered if there were many children at all who got in so many go-related accidents, or if her son was the only one.


	5. Morning and Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hikaru and Akira deal with having vastly different schedules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Hikaru stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. He looked into the mirror, bleary-eyed, and turned on the faucet. He splashed some water on his face and left the faucet running while he took care of business. When he finished, he cleaned up a bit, left the bathroom, and forgot to close the door. The whole while, Akira stood in the shower, the water running, not even noticing the temperature change when Hikaru flushed.

After getting dressed, Hikaru wandered into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. "Touya! Did we buy any eggs?"

Akira entered the room a moment later in his bathrobe while towelling his hair dry. "They're in the door, Shindou. What are you making?"

Hikaru smiled sleepily at the other man. "Rice omelets, unless you'd rather have-" he paused to look inside the the refrigerator again, "stir-friend broccoli and pineapple?" He looked at Akira momentarily. "Rice omelets it is, then." He grabbed the eggs and the leftover rice from the previous evening. "I'll go shopping before I go to work and get some stuff. We may be the only Japanese household without soy sauce!"

Akira took a step toward Hikaru and kissed his shoulder. "Thank you."

Looking up from beating the eggs with a fork, Hikaru asked, "What for?"

"For waking up early to make me breakfast when you don't work until this evening."

Hikaru yawned and kept beating the eggs. "It's no problem. If you could cook, you'd do the same thing for me. But, remember... in exchange?"

Akira rolled his eyes. "In exchange, I will never attempt to make microwave popcorn ever, ever again."

"Right." Hikaru gave Akira a peck on the cheek.

Akira's nose wrinkled a bit. "Just promise me you'll shower and brush your teeth before you go out somewhere."

"Yes, mommy." Hikaru laughed and turned on the stove and let the pan warm up with a pat of butter in it.

As Akira watched Hikaru assemble his breakfast, he smiled. "Is it going to take much longer?"

Hikaru looked at what he was doing. "You want toast?"

"Please."

"Five minutes."

Akira nodded and returned to the room, getting dressed quickly. As he draped his tie around his neck, Hikaru called out to him that his breakfast was ready. When Hikaru saw Akira walk in, tying his tie, he grinned widely. "I feel like I should have an apron on with you coming in like that." He gestured to the table. "Here. Breakfast. Don't spill anything on that tie. You don't have any others that match that shirt."

"I could wear one of yours," Akira retorted.

"You'd actually wear one of my ties?" Hikaru handed Akira a napkin and a fork.

Taking a bite of his omelet, Akira was almost surprised to enjoy it, despite the smoky smell of the kitchen (leftover from the Popcorn Incident) lingering in his nostrils. "Yes, I would wear one of your ties that does not have a cartoon character or the number five emblazoned on it."

"My five tie is *perfect* for go events!"

"For you, Shindou? Yes. For me? No, especially since that is distinctly *your* tie, so I shouldn't be the one to wear it. People might think something's up."

"Hey, yeah. We need to let people know we moved. We told our parents and some friends, but we both need to register a change of address with the Go Association or we won't get our game cards."

Akira paused in taking the final bite of his omelet. "This isn't against the rules, is it? For two people in the same household to play in the leagues?"

"Touya, that's a stupid question even for this early in the morning."

"How is it a stupid question?" Akira chewed angrily and reached for his toast.

Hikaru smiled and picked up Akira's empty plate. "Who's your father, Touya?"

Akira paused and daintily wiped a few toast crumbs from his lips. "You're right. It was a stupid question."

Yawning again as he put Akira's plate in the sink, Hikaru said, "It's getting late. Go do your hair. I'll clean up later when I get up again."

"You're going back to bed?" Akira paused mid-step.

Hikaru stretched his arms above his head and afforded Akira a view of his stomach. "If I stay awake, I'll be tired by the time I get to the end of my shidougo game tonight. But," he gave Akira a shy grin, "do you think you could call after your first game and make sure I'm up?"

Akira smiled and shook his head as he took off toward the bathroom again. He called out as he picked up his comb, "Yes, Shindou. I suppose I can be your alarm clock today, despite us having a perfectly good one in our bedroom."

"That's nice to say, isn't it?" Hikaru said from the doorway of the bathroom. "*Our* bedroom." He blew Akira a sleepy kiss. "Going to bed. Play well, sweetie. G'night." He wandered off and Akira was left to his own devices.

"Wait a second," Akira said to himself, "did he just call me sweetie?" After a moment, he could already hear Hikaru's soft snores coming from the bedroom. "*Our* bedroom," he whispered.  
\----------

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----The Popcorn Incident----- a drabble

Hikaru and Akira were about to sit down and do the first non-go thing they'd ever mutually agreed upon: watching a movie. Akira's friend, Ashiwara, had been scouted and cast in a small role in a movie about Heian-era Japan. Akira had agreed to watch it for Ashiwara's sake. Hikaru had simply smiled about the content of the movie and agreed to watch. "But we should have popcorn!" Hikaru said.

Akira had thought himself perfectly capable of making microwave popcorn. He read over the instructions and placed the bag in the microwave for five minutes. He watched it in the microwave, always a bit fascinated at how fast it puffed up. The pops eventually got slower and Akira counted from one pop to the next, waiting for it to slow down to two seconds. When it still hadn't done so by the time the five minutes were up, Akira put it in for another two minutes and then promptly became distracted by the kifu that Hikaru had scribbled onto a napkin with a pencil.

There were still fifteen seconds left on the timer when the smoke alarm went off and Hikaru raced into the kitchen. "Touya!" He surveyed the scene. There was smoke pouring from the microwave and Touya was standing right next to it, looking at the kifu that Hikaru had scrawled down earlier in the day of what he remembered of his all-white game with Kurata. "Touya, why don't you go set up the DVD? I'll make the next batch."

When Touya walked off, smiling sheepishly, Hikaru opened the window and turned on the fan and went to disable the smoke alarm, making a note to enable it before going to bed.

The next batch of popcorn still tasted a bit smoky.


	6. Mail Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hikaru gets the mail and finds a few suprises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Hikaru came into the room with a stack of letters in his hand. "Mail call!"

Akira came in from the kitchen with a dishtowel still in hand. "Anything good?"

"You mean any game cards?" Hikaru stuck his tongue out at Akira. "Yes. We have three. There's one for me, one for you, and one for Waya which was delivered to us by mistake along with his- WOAH! Okay, Waya is officially a hentai. Babes in Bondage?"

"Do you suppose he's gotten any of our mail?"

Hikaru shrugged. "I'll ask when I go over there later on. Oh, hey, you're playing me." Hikaru blinked and grinned. "Er, I mean, I'm playing you? I was looking at your card instead of mine."

Akira smiled and headed back into the kitchen, calling out over his shoulder, "I suppose the preliminaries of the Honinbou tournament are starting again."

"It sucks that we're matched in the first round. I'm glad it's not a single elimination tournament for the prelims."

"If you get to the semi-finals, I'll..." Akira trailed off, no longer sure of what he was saying.

Hikaru recognized the awkwardness. "You'll let me give you cooking lessons?"

"Yes. Cooking lessons." Akira smiled weakly. "And... if you beat me in the prelims, I'll give you a goodnight kiss."

A sudden look of utter calm on his face, Hikaru gestured toward Akira with the game cards. "I'm holding you to that, Touya Akira."

Akira wasn't sure if the idea made him nervous in a good way, or a bad way.

Two weeks later, as the pair were walking down the street after their game, they were smiling and talking and mainly filling the void. But when they took a step into the apartment, Hikaru turned around toward Akira and bowed before gesturing him in. Akira laughed and wrinkled his brow. "Shindou? What are you doing?"

Hikaru closed the door and put up the latch. "I'm just acknowledging a good opponent and trying to make you feel more comfortable about tonight."

"It's just a kiss, Shindou. I give you kisses all the time."

"Never in bed, you don't. You'll kiss me when I'm busy and when I'm cooking and when I'm studying kifu by myself when you come home and sometimes when I come home when you've been here all day. But you've never kissed me even in our bedroom."

Akira swallowed deeply and took a deep breath. "It means that much to you?"

"You're the guy I love. Of course everything that you do means a lot to me. That's how this whole thing works!"

"Then you'll get your kiss."

After dinner and cleaning up, they played another game. It was a good game, much on the level of their earlier tournament game, but Akira stayed a step ahead of Hikaru and won by one and a half moku. It was certainly not his closest game, but he always felt a heady excitement in playing when he could feel his opponent practically breathing down his neck as Hikaru sometimes did during the night.

But after they brushed their teeth and changed into pajamas, Akira got really nervous. Hikaru was already tucked into his futon, reading Weekly Shonen Jump (something which, like his blonde bangs, he'd never outgrown), and Akira was standing in the hallway, his palms sweaty and his bottom lip trembling. But Akira was never one to break a promise, or be a sore loser, or to back down against tremendous opposition. So he took a deep breath and took the first step.

"Ah, Touya? I was beginning to wonder if you'd forgotten how to get from the bathroom to the bedroom. I know that with all *four* of these rooms, it's easy to become confused, especially since the other three rooms are the bathroom, kitchen, and living room, none of which look remotely like a bedroom." Hikaru had already set aside his Shonen Jump.

"Shut up, Shindou." Akira shut off the lights and stumbled toward his futon. "Are you still lying down?"

"Yes."

Akira felt for Hikaru's hair on the pillow and allowed that to lead him to the other man's face. He took a deep breath and bent down to kiss Hikaru. His eyes closed in the darkness and he felt his hair move as it touched against Hikaru's face. Hikaru was silent, but responded to the gentle pressure of Akira's kisses with a soft pursed kiss that send a wave of heady euphoria through Akira. He let out his breath in a gentle moan and suddenly pressed himself forward again, his fingers grasping at silken threads of Hikaru's hair and pulling the other man up from the pillow just enough to cup a hand around the back of his head and keep him close while he mouthed passionate nothings against Hikaru's skin and drew kisses from his lips.

"Touya," Hikaru muttered in a husky voice. "You don't... have to do all of this. This is going beyond a simple goodnight kiss."

Akira pulled back and wiped his lips with the back of his hand, panting softly. "Sorry. I got a bit carried away. It felt... good."

"Good," Hikaru muttered. "Now, go to bed. You're cranky in the mornings when you don't get enough sleep."

Chuckling to himself as he made his way into his futon, Akira caught a glimpse of Shindou's wide-open eyes in the moonlight that streamed through the cracks in the blinds. "Shindou?"

The other man's eyes shut. "Yes?"

"If you make it to the semi-finals... we'll go further."

He could hear Hikaru's breath stop for a moment. "Okay." He paused. "Let's have a game after breakfast tomorrow."

Touya smiled and closed his own eyes. Go after breakfast was always a nice thing to wake up to, no matter how "cranky" he might be.


	7. Hot Pursuit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waiting on the air conditioning repairman is thirsty work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

"It's hot in here." Hikaru fanned himself with a copy of Weekly Go.

Akira looked up from the book he was reading. "You have a fan. Why don't you use that?"

"I can't use that! That's my go fan!" Hikaru fanned himself more vigorously and pulled at the collar of his t-shirt. "When are they going to fix the air conditioning?"

"They're coming by later on today, Shindou." He looked back at his book. "If you're that hot, go eat one of the popsicles that you insisted we buy but haven't touched."

"Oh, yeah!" Hikaru scrambled to his feet. "I keep forgetting they're there!"

"Get one for me, too?"

Hikaru quirked an eyebrow at Akira. "What flavor? Cherry, orange, or grape?"

"Hmm..." Akira put a bookmark in his book. "Cherry."

"'Kay. Be right back."

Within moments, Akira had a cherry popsicle in hand while Hikaru had gone for orange. "Thanks, Shindou."

"You're welcome, Touya." Hikaru took a lick of his popsicle and smiled before tossing himself down on the couch next to Akira.

Akira took a tentative taste of his own. It was sweet and cool and perfect for the moment with the apartment almost sticky with humidity and sweltering. He wrapped his lips around the end of the popsicle and sucked some of the juice out of the ice, liking the feeling of the liquid trickling down his somewhat parched throat.

Within minutes, Akira had finished his own treat and was busy examining the stick. "Hey, there are jokes on there." He looked at his again. "Stupid ones, but jokes nonetheless."

Hikaru was still working on the last third of his popsicle, obviously savoring it. But, he was also looking at Akira with a peculiar expression on his face. Akira looked at him for a moment before asking, "Shindou, how many go players does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"

Snorting, Hikaru pulled his popsicle away from his mouth and held his nose. "Oh god, Touya. Don't make me do that. I can feel ice melting in my sinuses." He laughed. "Does it really say that?"

"Okay, you were paying attention. You looked funny." Akira licked his popsicle stick one more time. "And, it takes two. One to capture the burnt bulb and take the territory with a new one, and one to commentate on the match."

"That was stupid."

"But you're laughing."

Hikaru stuck his tongue out at Akira. "It was still stupid!"

"Shindou... your tongue is orange."

"And your tongue is bright red. And so are your lips."

Akira raised his hand and pressed his fingers to his still-cool lips. "They are?"

"Don't worry, Touya. Even with the long hair and the red lips, you still don't look like a girl." Hikaru lifted his popsicle to his lips and finished it quickly, a few drips of it making their way onto his shirt. He was still looking at Akira strangely.

"Other than the red lips and tongue, is there something wrong with my face?" Akira moved his hand to touch his cheek and then his chin. "Did I get some on it on my shirt?" He looked down and then back up at Hikaru.

"Sorry... it's just... Your lips looks really, um, yummy like that."

Akira laughed. "But you haven't tried to kiss me yet."

"No. I didn't think you'd like it."

Akira played with his popsicle stick again, twirling it in his fingers. "You can kiss me whenever you want to, Shindou. You don't need to get a special dispensation for it."

"No. I wanted to *kiss* you... like you kissed me goodnight."

"Oh." Akira blushed slightly. "Well, I... I suppose you could have done that, too."

"No." Hikaru smiled. "It's too hot for that. I don't want to touch anything right now, let alone someone else who's 37 degrees Celsius. But once the air conditioning is fixed? Let's hope the red has faded or I'll be tempted to jump you."

Akira smiled and held out his hand to Hikaru. "Popsicle stick? I'll go throw them away."

Hikaru put his stick in Akira's hand and smiled back. "Thanks."

"Ew. Shindou, you could have actually finished your popsicle. This thing is sticky."

Rolling his eyes, Hikaru picked up a stack of kifu and began fanning himself again. "Whine, whine; complain, complain. Wash your hands. You do it 47 times a day, one more won't hurt."

"I only wash my hands so much because you leave such disgusting things lying around."

"That shirt was not disgusting! I only wore it for five minutes and then remembered I had a shidougo game!"

"*You* didn't pick it up. It was dripping wet!"

"That's because I had just showered. It was clean-wet."

Akira took a deep breath. "I didn't know how long it had been there."

Hikaru laughed. "Oh, go wash your hands. It's almost three o'clock and I just heard someone drive up. We can play go and hope against hope that by the time we're finished, everything will be fixed. Doesn't that sound good?"

Standing up and grinning at Hikaru's enthusiasm, Akira clenched his fist. "I'm going to beat you, though." He paused and looked at his hand. "Ew. I'll be right back."

Hikaru leaned back against the couch then leaned forward again. There were many things that it was too hot for, and touching anything, even his boyfriend who looked so very tempting when sucking on a popsicle, wouldn't be an enjoyable experience in this heat. He muttered to himself, "You're supposed to *get* hot and sweaty, not already *be* hot and sweaty." He fanned himself more and wished they had purchased a portable fan the last time they'd gone shopping.  
\----------

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----Mail Call, part deux----- a drabble

"Waya, we got some of your mail by accident." Hikaru handed over the two items that had arrived in the Shindou/Touya box. "Have you gotten any of our mail?"

Shaking his head, Waya read his game card. "Oh, god. I'm playing Ochi again. Why can't I get away from him? He's so annoying to play against, especially since he beat Kurata on that day that Kurata kept leaving every other hand to puke... something about a bad bowl of ramen?" He gave Hikaru a look.

Hikaru stuck his tongue out. "Haha, Waya. I know better than to eat at places that might have bad ramen. And, uh, that magazine? I thought they sent those with brown paper on them... or is that just packages with, um, adult stuff?"

Waya blushed. "Shindou! Don't look at my mail!"

 

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----Shopping Trip----- a drabble

"Okay, now let's go look at ice cream." Hikaru led the way, commandeering the shopping cart from Akira.

"But we don't *need* ice cream." Akira tried to take the cart back, but Hikaru kept pushing it forward.

"Touya, it's summer. Ice cream is a must. Okay, here we are. Ice cream. Do we want to get a carton of ice cream? Or... Oh, here's some ice cream sandwiches." He looked at Akira. "How about popsicles? They're almost healthy. Look, these have real fruit juice!"

Akira sighed and hung his head, but not before Hikaru saw the smile that made the corners of his mouth twitch up. "Okay, fine. Popsicles. Now, let's go before we end up going over our food budget."

Hikaru smiled. "Thank you, Touya!"

"You're welcome, Shindou." Akira grabbed the cart once more.


	8. A Little Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira doesn't think much has changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

"Touya!" Hikaru set a plate of spaghetti and meatballs on the table. "Dinner's ready."

A moment later, Akira came walking in, looking a bit flustered. "Thank you... Shindou."

"Something wrong?" Hikaru pulled out Akira's chair and helped him move the chair in once he'd sat down. Hikaru took his own seat.

"What's really changed?"

"Huh?" Hikaru looked up from the piece of garlic bread he'd just grabbed. "What do you mean?"

"We've... kissed a bit. And, we live together. And, we play more go than we used to. We do some things which are because we live together. But, can we really say we're dating when I still call you 'Shindou' and you still call me 'Touya'?"

Hikaru nibbled on the crust of his bread, then set it down and looked at Akira seriously. "I wanted to make sure before I went and changed everything. For years, in my head, you've been Akira. But, for years, you've been Touya... someone I had to be at least a bit polite to out in public, and going back and forth just wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to bother with. It's too much like work. I don't like having to think about what to call you every time I say your name."

Akira poked at one of the meatballs he'd put on his plate with a small helping of spaghetti. "So you were waiting for me to be ready?"

"Don't make it sound so noble. I just didn't want things to be awkward." Hikaru slurped at a string of spaghetti and laughed quickly as it dragged along his chin. He grabbed a napkin and cleaned his face.

"You can call me 'Akira', you know. It's always been weird being called 'Touya' by people who know my dad... like somehow I'm inferior because I don't have a title to tack on the end of my name yet." He smiled softly and twirled spaghetti on his fork. "And you always draw it out and make me know when you're going to complain about something."

"Akira. It's a nice name. And you can call me 'Hikaru' if you want." Hikaru offered Akira the parmesan cheese. "Cheese?"

Akira shook his head. "No, thanks. I'm not fond of it. But is there any extra sauce?"

Hikaru smiled. "I thought you might like some... you put lots of sauce on anything that has sauce. Let me get it." He stood up and retrieved the bowl from the counter.

"Thank you, Hikaru." Akira smiled and accepted the bowl. "I always wanted to call you that. Shindou doesn't make me think of you like I know you to be. But Hikaru... Hikaru makes me remember all of those times when you got in my way and made me angry and unsure... and all of those stupid moves that you made and then turned completely around."

Hikaru had taken his seat again. "The fact that you were usually the only person who could read ahead enough to see where those moves might take me... I'm sure that pissed you off."

"It always made me wonder how exactly you came up with them, and how much further ahead you were reading to be able to see them so clearly." Akira took another bite of spaghetti, careful not to get any of the sauce on his shirt.

"I don't know how far I read. Sometimes, I don't even think it's reading. It's just... knowing. You watch an opponent for thirty hands and you learn about them quickly. You know from their fuseki how aggressive they are, and whether they can stay at that level. You learn if you can force their hand. You know what they're thinking is going to happen, and then you go beyond that. You take yose into consideration from the end of fuseki and just... know." Hikaru cleared his throat and took a sip of his water. "You still make it difficult for me, you know. Sometimes you play entirely different from one day to the next."

Akira was still playing with his food, only occasionally taking a bite. "You are okay with all of this, aren't you?"

"Huh? What do you mean 'this'? Dinner? I thought it was good." He looked at Akira's plate versus his own. "Do you not like the sausage I put in the meatballs?"

"So that's what that flavor is... I like the dinner. But, I mean, this. All of this. The two of us living together, and sleeping in the same bed, and sometimes kissing, you cooking and me cleaning, us playing go... I know I said you'd get something more if you get to the Honinbou semi-finals... but, you can't be satisfied with that." He looked as though he was going to say something else, but stopped himself.

Hikaru was silent for a while as he continued to eat. But after a few more mouthfuls, he lay down his fork and wiped his mouth. "Akira? I'm 'satisfied' by being with you. Yeah, my hormones may try their best to overwhelm me sometimes. Yeah, I may see you fresh out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel and want to jerk the towel away. Yeah, sometimes I want to just grab you and kiss you when we're out shopping or we're on the train or something. But, I can deal with it until you decide that you want to let me do it. I'm not going to force myself on you. I told you at the beginning of all of 'this' that I wasn't doing it as some little fling. If I'm not complaining, you shouldn't be."

Akira put down his own fork. "But how can you stand it? How can you have the willpower to hold back?"

Putting his head in his hands and laughing softly, Hikaru said, "I don't know, sometimes. Because, y'know, even with that haircut... you're still so damn sexy sometimes without meaning to be, and that's usually when I suggest we play speed go."

"What's wrong with my hair?!" Akira stabbed a meatball.

"Nothing!" Hikaru's eyes were wide and he had his hands in front of him, waving slightly. "I didn't mean it like that... it's just that... well... Okay, your hair doesn't really seem to match the rest of you now. Your face is so... gorgeous, really, and then you still have the same haircut that you did when I first met you."

Akira ate his meatball, chewing on it slowly. He swallowed and wiped his own mouth. "It's not like your own hair has had any change since then."

"Then what would you suggest? Dye it black again? Cut it short? I'll do it. Whatever you want, I'll do it." Hikaru's eyes were set with the stubbornness that Akira knew he possessed as well.

"I..." Akira reached out and fingered the blonde bangs. "I like your hair. But what would you have me do with mine? Cut it short like my father's?"

"I was thinking more like Yashiro... sort of spiky... but shorter than that. Or maybe grow it out and pull it back? Y'know, not too long, but enough that you can do something with it if it gets in your way."

"I can do that," Akira said. He ate more of his spaghetti. "How long have you been holding that thought in?"

"At least a year," Hikaru mumbled out from around his garlic bread.

Akira picked up his own garlic bread, dipped it in some of the sauce left on his plate, and took a large bite. "You're really getting to be a better cook."

"Yeah, well, when you have to do it all by yourself, you sort of have to. It wouldn't do to screw up one part of a meal and get the rest of it right or anything like that, so I have to be careful."

"We have tomorrow night off. Do you want to start teaching me how to cook?"

Hikaru grinned widely and Akira grinned to see a fleck of parsley stuck in his teeth. (He'd point it out later.) "I have a better idea, actually. I know Waya's off tomorrow night, and I think Isumi is, too. Do you want to have a go party? You could maybe help me make the food for that? Y'know... simple stuff."

"Like crackers and cheese?"

"Something like that."

"I think I can handle that. Should we invite anyone else?" Akira finished off his garlic bread.

"As long as it isn't Ogata, or Kurata, or the old man Kuwabara, I don't care." Hikaru slumped back in his chair.

Akira smiled. "I'll see what I can do. Or do you want to invite some of your friends from your insei days?"

Hikaru looked at Akira closely and smiled. "Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself. Yeah. I'll do that... if you don't mind?"

"Hikaru... I wouldn't suggest it if I minded." Akira took a final bite of spaghetti and wiped his mouth before taking a sip of water. "Are you finished? I'll clean up."

"Yeah." Hikaru picked up his own plate and brought it over to the sink. "You wash, I'll dry. And then-"

"A game of go?"

"You spoil me." Hikaru laughed and grabbed a clean dishtowel from one of the drawers by the sink.

"When it's go we're talking about, I think we spoil each other." Akira turned on the water and soaped up a sponge. "Speed go?"

"Only if you put on that silly apron again."

Akira blushed. "The apron? Really?" He grinned. "I'll have to remember that."

Hikaru sighed loudly. "The things you do to me!"

"Oh, quit that. Here. Dry this."

Their game of go that evening was not particularly eventful, but was certainly a welcome event as all games of go were in the Shindou-Touya household.


	9. Standing There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Go party!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Akira looked at the green apron he'd just put on. It was a dark green with a strap that went around his neck and a thin tie that he looped around his back and tied in front. He wasn't sure exactly what Hikaru saw in it, but he'd mentioned, in a way, that he liked seeing Akira in it. Earlier, when Akira had come home, Hikaru was at the stove, cooking. He was making stir-fry, something which he usually got all over himself. Akira had meant to buy him an apron of his own, but he'd been distracted on his way by Ashiwara who seemed to have moved to the neighborhood recently. They'd chatted for a while, and talked about go. Ashiwara questioned him about why he kept mentioning games that he played with Hikaru, and (almost) everything was revealed. Akira was a bit irked by the fact that Ashiwara was not-at-all surprised.

Tying the string of the apron, Akira realized for the first time that he was skinny, at least in comparison to Hikaru. It wasn't that Hikaru was overweight like Kurata, but he was... sturdy? He wasn't able to actually tie the strings. He'd just roped them over one another and went about with his cooking. The sight of him, though, in a proper button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, wearing the apron that Akira habitually wore while doing the dishes before going to work... it had an effect. Hikaru's muscles bulging slightly against the folded sleeves as he reached right into the pan to pick up a piece of broccoli, eating it quickly before blowing on his fingers and smiling as he turned and saw Akira standing there... Akira wasn't sure what it was about the apron, but he had felt his pulse rise a bit and had wondered for a moment if the heat had been turned up in the house. The temperature hadn't seemed to change until Hikaru left, though.

As Akira ate the food that Hikaru left for him, he found himself thinking about what kind of apron he should buy when he went to the store. He'd worked in the morning and Hikaru had several interviews to give that afternoon, and then they would have a party in the evening. He'd agreed to do the shopping, and would be going first thing for an apron. And this time, he'd have it on the list to make sure that nothing would make him forget it.

When Akira came home from shopping, he was relatively laden with packages. He had several bottles of wine (which had been aggravating to get as the clerk kept checking his ID to see if it was fake), several kinds of cheese and bread, fruit, cured meats, white and dark chocolate and whipping cream. He wasn't entirely certain what Hikaru was going to do with it all, but reasoned that there couldn't be too much cooking involved as most of it was the kind of thing you ate at room temperature. There was also, of course, an apron.

The apron that Akira ended up picking out was something he'd never thought he'd find. But the wine store was next to a kitchen supply store, and Akira had wandered in to look for a new corkscrew and had thought to look at the aprons. There was a service offered to have a particular word or simple logo embroidered onto the apron for a small fee. So, Hikaru would soon be able to wear a bright yellow apron with a black number five in a circle embroidered onto the front. Akira was quite proud of his find, even if he had completely forgotten about the corkscrew.

Akira looked at the instructions that Hikaru had left for him about what to do with the groceries. The wine was to go on ice half an hour before the party; the cheeses, breads, and fruit were supposed to stay on the counter; the chocolate, whipping cream and ham went into the refrigerator. He did that quickly enough and moved out into the main room to set up for the party. He moved the couch into the corner and pushed the TV into a different corner. He pulled the go boards to the center of the room and retrieved the one from the bedroom to go with them. Three go boards would be enough for the party. Akira counted the guests in his mind: Hikaru, Waya, Isumi, Nase, Fukui (who would not be drinking, Akira reminded himself), Honda, Ashiwara, and himself. One more board would mean that they could all play at once, but Akira was certain that some people would eat and watch the others play. If they really needed another board, Waya would probably be willing to bring his over from the apartment next door.

With everything done that he could think of, as he always kept the apartment clean, Akira sat down on the couch with a book, a murder mystery that he'd picked up to read on the train to Nagoya, not realizing at the time that Hikaru had no games or teaching that weekend and would come with him. It would be nice to get to do something together. The Go Association seemed to love to make their schedules conflict. While Hikaru and Akira usually got to have dinner together, it was generally after they hadn't seen each other since the early morning. The closest they'd had to a full day together since they'd moved into the apartment had been the day that Akira had been scheduled to play against a pro who was found to be on the run from the police for selling fake gobans with fake Shuusaku signatures. Hikaru had laughed uproariously when Akira told him, but refused to expound on why, exactly, he found it so amusing.

The door opened when Akira was only 45 pages into his book. He glanced up and smiled to see Hikaru shrugging off his jacket. "Hi. Mind if I finish this chapter?"

Hikaru laughed throatily. "Keep on reading. You went shopping already, right?"

Akira nodded, already engrossed in his book again, gasping because the killer had just struck again, literally, and this time with a goke! Hikaru smiled and went into the kitchen.

There, sitting on the counter, was a package with his name on it. "Akira?" There was no answer. Hikaru took a step toward the package and opened it, his face quirked in amusement as he unfolded the apron. Without waiting a moment, he put it on, noticing that the strings were longer than the ones on Akira's own. He looked down at himself and grinned wildly before beginning to prepare the food. 

He chopped the chocolate into small pieces while he heated a pan of water on the stove. When it was boiling, he lowered the temperature and began to melt the chocolate in a bowl suspended over the pan. He melted the white chocolate in one bowl and the dark in another. He set both bowls of melted chocolate off to the side and began to whip the cream briskly after sweetening it. When it was stiff, he mixed it with equal parts of white and dark chocolate and served it into small dishes that he'd pulled from the cupboard. He put the dishes on a tray and slid it into the refrigerator, amused to hear another gasp of shock come from Akira in the other room.

Hikaru, confident that Akira wouldn't come snooping into the kitchen anytime soon, dug into the pantry where he found his sliced dried strawberries. He took a large handful of them and began cutting little circles out with the apple corer that he'd gotten as a free gift with the food processor he'd purchased. He dipped the circles into the chocolate, half in each flavor, and placed them onto a sheet of wax paper to set. He also drizzled straight lines of the dark chocolate onto the paper and then put the used bowls in the sink, nibbling on the remains of the dried strawberries.

He retrieved another tray from the cupboard and began to arrange the cheese, bread and fruit on it. The grapes, raspberries, pear and apple slices and orange wedges were scattered among the tray with thin slices of the bread and thick slices of the firm cheeses and cheese knives stuck in the soft cheeses. Hikaru made up a plate of the meats, with ham and prosciutto and some sliced smoked sausage. He kept the cheese tray on the counter and slid the meat tray back into the refrigerator. Taking a glance at the clock, he opened the freezer and pulled out the small aluminum tub he'd filled with ice and placed inside (after nearly breaking the rack in order to take it out). When his hands nearly stuck to the tub with cold, Hikaru finally acquiesced to the fact that Akira was probably right... Akira had maintained that perhaps the ice should have gone in the freezer with the bucket staying on the counter.

Placing the wine in the tub with a towel next to it to clean up any condensation or spilled ice, Hikaru placed the wine in and dug around in the drawers for the corkscrew, a simple screw going perpendicular to a small piece of black plastic. He placed it on the counter and turned his attention to finishing the dessert.

The mousse had set enough for the finishing touches. He laid crossed lines of the dark chocolate on top of the simple mousse and set several dark and light circles on various intersecting points. He grinned as he looked at the tray again; glad to have thought of doing such a thing for a go party. He set the tray in the refrigerator once more and walked out into the living area again. "So? How do I look?"

Akira looked up and bit his lip. "You found it. Do you like it?" He let his book close with his thumb keeping his place.

"Of course I like. In fact, I think I'm going to wear it all night."

"What?! But then you might get it dirty!"

Hikaru laughed. "It's an apron, no matter how new it is. Let me wear it. This is a *go* party." He gestured to the five. "It's perfect! And then I can worry less about dropping food on myself." He took a seat next to Akira. "Thank you." He lifted Akira's chin with his finger and gave his thanks with a kiss. "What are you reading that has you gasping every five minutes, anyway?"

Akira laughed. "It's silly, really." He showed Hikaru the cover. "It's called 'Keshi', you know... reduction?"

"I know that one." Hikaru stuck his tongue out at Akira.

"Of course you do. Anyway, it's a murder mystery that I really only bought because of the title. There's a serial killer and all of his killings are go related. First he kills the prime minister by slamming his head down on his go board leaving this blood stain that just won't wash away. Then, he kills the president of a big corporation by knocking him unconscious with a goke and shoving a stone down his throat as he's breathing. It's..." He paused and looked at Hikaru's expression. "Well, excuse me for being excited about a book about go."

"Oh, it's not that. Okay, it's the fact that you're so excited about a go *murder mystery*. It's nice to see you excited about something. You're always so calm when we're not playing that sometimes it's hard to remember you're the same guy that I consider my eternal rival at the same time that I want to grab your ass."

"Hikaru!"

"What?!" Hikaru laughed and squirmed out of Akira's reach as the other man moved toward him. There was a knock on the door which surprised both of them. Hikaru made a startled gasp. Akira fell off the couch.

After helping Akira to his feet, laughing the whole while, Hikaru approached the door and opened it. Nase and Isumi were there. "Hey!"

The two of them came in, both with gifts in their hands. "Here you go, Shindou," Nase said. "Housewarming gifts!" She looked over at Akira. "They're yours too."

Akira smiled and walked around the go boards toward them. "Thank you. It's very kind of you to think of such a thing."

"Oh, we didn't think of it. Waya did, actually. He even made suggestions about what to get you. So, don't be surprised to get more." Nase smiled prettily and was about to walk into the room when Fukui arrived and took a running leap for her. "Fukui!"

Fukui smiled brightly and handed his own gift to Hikaru. "It's good to see you guys! I haven't talked to any of you in ages. But, I guess that's what it's like when you actually play professionally."

Hikaru held his hand up for Fukui. Fukui slapped it and Hikaru laughed. "Congratulations on finally becoming a pro... but you're still not old enough to drink as your mother was kind enough to remind me on the phone."

Fukui laughed. "It's just as well. I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. They think I have carpal tunnel from too much speed go. I can't decide if I think that's cool or not."

Isumi laughed and turned a grin toward Waya who had finally emerged from his apartment. Waya approached and looked at everyone. "Hey, I thought we were having the party *inside*."

Hikaru's eyes widened. "Oh, yeah. Of course! Everyone get in here!"

As Hikaru was closing the door, he felt someone put pressure on the other side of the door. He opened it again to see Honda with a flustered-looking Ashiwara. "Oh, good. I see you found the place all right." He looked around again and then down at his watch. "Is that everyone? But it just turned seven."

Akira laughed. "Hikaru, just because you can never be on time doesn't mean that no one else can."

Hikaru pouted. "Fine. No dessert for you." He took the armload of presents into the kitchen, then called out behind him, "Everyone, have a seat at a board. Akira, want to help with the food?"

Excusing himself, Akira walked into the kitchen, almost surprised to see that it was still relatively clean. "What would you like me to carry?"

Hikaru gestured toward the wine. "Would you go ahead and open the wine? I have grape juice for Fukui in the fridge, so I'll grab that in a second."

Akira fussed with the corks for a bit and finally got a bottle open. He grabbed several glasses by their stems in one hand and brought them into the other room with the first bottle of wine. He returned a moment later to get the other glasses. Hikaru had already put the cheese and meat trays on the counter and had gotten the grape juice as well. "If you would, grab the grape juice and the rest of the glasses. I can carry everything else."

When they finally sat down around the trays, Waya took a glance at Hikaru and Akira and stifled a laugh. "Hikaru... is that an apron?"

Hikaru stood up again and modeled it. "Yup. This is my new apron, courtesy of the most thoughtful and wonderful guy in the world." He reached down and ran his knuckles softly against Akira's jaw.

Nase's eyes widened a bit. "Are you guys- Waya, you said-" She paused. "Waya, you should have told me they were dating! I would have gotten a different gift."

There were mixed reactions, but no objections. Hikaru sat down again, folding his legs in front of him. "Sorry. I didn't think to tell you guys about it. It's one of those things, you know? Now, c'mon everybody. Eat! I didn't buy this food to have it go to waste."

Akira smiled. "You didn't even buy it. You just put it on the plates."

"That was the hard part!" Hikaru insisted.

After eating, they moved over to the boards. They played jan-ken-pon to determine who would sit out, and again to figure out who would play at which board.

Nase played Ashiwara which she giggled about. "I figured I wouldn't get to play you until I got into the upper dans!"

Akira played Honda who looked distressed, but was pulling off some very thought-provoking moves. 

Fukui played Waya which made Waya groan loudly. "I've still only beaten you that one time for the pro exam. God, I need more to drink."

Isumi and Hikaru sat off to the side, talking quietly about the three games. Isumi had been over at Waya's apartment a few times when Hikaru had come, sometimes with Akira in tow. He was used to the idea of them being together, if not some of the things that had come along with it. It was still strange to see Hikaru being affectionate, or to suddenly have a nearly-gourmet spread of food around when, previously, he might be offered something to drink. In the middle of Hikaru discussing Ashiwara's perfect use of the empty triangle, Isumi asked, "Where did you learn to do all of this?" while gesturing to the forgotten trays of food.

Hikaru laughed. "Um, the Cooking Channel. I need something to keep me occupied when Akira's at work, and since I'm the one who does the cooking around here, I figured that knowing how to make noodles and stir-fry wasn't quite enough."

"You really love him, don't you?" Isumi grabbed a few grapes off of the tray and popped one into his mouth.

"I do. He's just... For years now, I've wanted him in my life like he's in my go."

Isumi chewed on another grape. "Are you going to marry him?"

Hikaru paused, and then laughed. "I think, first, I have to get him over the idea that kissing is not evil."

"He's not affectionate?" Isumi glanced at the boards and saw that Nase was making eyes at Ashiwara who was blushing and playing bad hands because of it.

"It's not that. He's very sweet and thoughtful and when there's no one else around, he can be *very* affectionate, but sometimes I'm just not sure what he wants to get out of this, or if he even realizes what 'dating' is, but then he does stuff like this," he gestured to the apron, "and I fall in love all over again."

"The apron means that much?" Isumi looked confused and examined the apron again.

"It's the thought behind it. He got the right size, the right color, had a logo put on it that he knew I'd like, and probably all because he caught me wearing his dish-washing apron this afternoon. He was eyeing me like Shuusaku kifu, and I couldn't get enough of it."

Isumi laughed at the imagery. "Should we all leave after this game to give you some alone time?"

"No." Hikaru shook his head. "I know it means a lot to him to have other people here. He's the kind of guy who sits by himself but wants everyone else to sit with him. We moved here because of you and Waya being close by, and he's not close with you guys. He moved away from his parents for me, even though they're gone a lot of the time anyway. Because of who he is, and how he is sometimes, he doesn't have a lot of friends, and I want to come home from shidougo one day and hear him say things about his day that weren't about go. I want him to be happy."

Isumi sipped at his wine. "You guys are perfect for each other."

Hikaru smiled and turned to Isumi. "You think?"

Isumi smiled and nodded. "And, to think, go is the reason you're together."

Taking a sip of his own wine, Hikaru smiled and raised his glass a bit. He muttered to himself, "Thank you, Sai."

"Did you say something, Hikaru?"

"No, nothing. Oh, hey, I think it's our turn to play!" Hikaru moved to take Nase's spot from where she'd just finished beating Ashiwara and was now trying to get him to have more wine.

They played several more games, some as speed rounds. They all finished at about the same time and Hikaru hopped to his feet and went into the kitchen, coming back with the tray of mousse. "I hope no one minds dessert this late. This one I actually had to do some work on!"

Akira was smiling widely as he took his own dish. He looked around and shook his head, standing up and heading to the kitchen. He came back a moment later with a handful of spoons. "I think we'd like to eat these with something other than our hands, Hikaru."

Hikaru had the decency to blush. "Hey, I'm busy being proud of myself, here."

Kissing Hikaru's shoulder, Akira handed him a spoon. "I'll be proud of you if this tastes as good as it looks." He suddenly blushed to realize how he was acting.

Hikaru gave him a full kiss, if a relatively chaste one. "Don't worry. They're friends. Eat your mousse."

Akira picked up a bit of the mousse with a white chocolate piece and chewed on it, his face lighting up as he tasted the strawberries. He chewed and swallowed, then looked up at Hikaru. "You didn't have me get strawberries."

"They're dried. I snuck them into the basket when we got the popsicles."

Akira laughed and ate more mousse. "It's good. I'm proud of you."

Everyone else was too busy eating to really notice as Hikaru reached out and grabbed Akira's free hand, holding it as he ate his own mousse with his left hand. "Thank you."

"For what?" Akira licked a bit of mousse off his upper lip.

Hikaru squeezed Akira's hand softly. "For the apron, of course. Look, I've already got chocolate on it."

At the end of the evening, for once, Akira left the dishes in the sink. They had bid everyone a good night and shoved the mess into the kitchen, not even bothering to clear the last game from the boards. Akira lay closer to Hikaru than he normally did in the bedroom, and was amused that he could still smell a vague scent of chocolate coming from Hikaru. "That was fun," he muttered into his pillow.

Hikaru slung an arm around Akira's hips. "It was. We should have more people over."

Akira laughed sleepily. "I get the feeling that I might be seeing more of Nase if I go visit Ashiwara. They seemed to hit it off."

"You seemed to get along well with Honda, too."

"He's been reading the same book. I knew it from the way he almost hesitated before going for komoku."

"What's the deal with komoku?"

"The killer uses this-"

"Never mind. Maybe I'll just read it myself." Hikaru yawned loudly and rubbed Akira's side with his thumb. "G'night, sweetie."

Akira smiled and let the name pass unmentioned. Hikaru could at least call him sweetie in the privacy of their own bedroom.  
\----------

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----Strawberry Sneak----- a drabble

Hikaru had been holding the package of dried strawberries in his hand for the last three aisles and Akira still hadn't noticed. Good. This just might work. He dragged Akira over to the ice cream and, in the process, slipped the strawberries into the cart next to the bread. He then managed to talk Akira into popsicles, which had been his plan from the beginning. At the register, he made sure to distract Akira by discussing his father's latest game against Beijing's best player, purposefully mispronouncing the Chinese pro's name. When they got home, Hikaru slid the strawberries into the pocket of his cargo pants until Akira left the room to answer the phone. He stored them in the pantry quickly and breathed a sigh of deep relief. He knew that Akira loved strawberries, and dried ones would be perfect to sneak to him at some unspecified time not too far in the future.


	10. Kiss the Cook

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooking lessons lead to a whole other kind of tasting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Hikaru stretched his arms above his head and tied on his apron. "Apron on, Akira. You can't learn to cook if you're busy washing egg off your pants."

Glaring at Hikaru for a moment, Akira tied on his own apron and stood next to Hikaru, waiting for the other man to teach him how to cook, a move that was in response to Akira setting the toaster oven on fire in an attempt to make toast. "Okay, Hikaru. I'm ready."

"You're learning to make scrambled eggs and toast, first. They're easy." Hikaru gestured to all of the items in front of him: a large pan, a spatula, a bowl, a whisk, several eggs, milk, salt, butter, bread, and the toaster. It seemed a daunting task to Akira already.

"Okay, first thing's first... crack the eggs into the bowl. Here, watch." Hikaru tapped an egg against the counter firmly and opened it into the bowl. "See? It's easy. You try it."

Akira grabbed one of the eggs, and held it in one hand, then hit it against the counter. It clinked, but did not crack. He hit it harder and it cracked ineffectually. "It didn't... finish?"

Hikaru laughed. "Turn it a bit and do it again." Akira followed the instructions and successfully opened the egg into the bowl. "Okay, now add in some milk. Pour it slowly until it takes up about 4 moku of territory."

Akira appreciated instructions he could understand, and did just so.

"Grab the whisk and mix the eggs and milk until it's all one color." While Akira did that, Hikaru smiled at him and appreciated the way the apron, open in back, emphasized certain parts of his anatomy.

Turning the bowl a bit to show Hikaru, Akira asked, "Like this?"

Hikaru nodded and pointed to the frying pan. "Put that on the stove and turn the heat to medium. Put in about as much butter as you would put on a piece of toast." He looked at the small dollop that Akira added to the pan. "Okay, maybe the amount that I put on *my* toast... about twice that." Akira did so and looked to Hikaru for instructions again.

"Add a shake of salt to the eggs and mix it again quickly and pour it in the pan." Akira raised an eyebrow. "If you add the salt too soon it can denature the eggs."

Akira laughed. "You *have* been watching the Cooking Channel, haven't you?"

Hikaru raised an eyebrow. "Was it that obvious?"

"I, uh, overheard you talking to Isumi last night."

"Oh?" Hikaru froze for a moment. "Pick up the spatula and start stirring the eggs in the pan."

Akira did so. "I'm really glad you like the apron."

"How much did you hear of what I was saying to Isumi?"

"Not a lot, really." Akira watched the scrambled eggs begin to take form. "But it was all very sweet. I'm glad to know what you think of me."

"I love you."

Akira stopped stirring and looked up at him. "I think I just might love you, too. At the very least, I think I could handle spending the rest of my life with you."

Hikaru cleared his throat. "Keep at the eggs." He leaned against the counter. "I know you're not just saying that, but what prompted it?"

"Because this morning when I destroyed the toaster oven, you didn't freak out. You hugged me and kissed my forehead and told me that today we'd start my cooking lessons. You were more worried about me than the toaster oven. When I broke the switch on Ogata's toaster he practically kicked me out of his house... and we hadn't even played go yet!"

"Maybe I should make the toast, then. You obviously have no talent for it." Hikaru laughed and stood behind Akira, one hand resting on his hip and the other guiding Akira's spatula hand, folding the eggs over and over. "There. Done." He released Akira's hand. "Turn off the burner and set the eggs aside. The residual heat will finish the cooking."

Akira leaned back against Hikaru when that was finished. "And the toast?"

Hikaru leaned forward and kissed Akira's neck, inhaling deeply and letting it out as a soft sigh. "I don't care about toast right now. I'm too busy wanting to kiss you."

Turning so that his back was to the stove, Akira looked at Hikaru closely. "The eggs will get cold."

"Let them. They're practice eggs. We've already eaten."

Akira's eyes fluttered shut as Hikaru advanced on him, pressing soft lips to his own and pulling him close. He murmured against Hikaru's lips, "Help me clean up later?"

Hikaru nodded. "Definitely."

"Then let's go into another room. No distractions." Akira reached up and tucked a tuft of Hikaru's hair behind his ear.

Hikaru shivered and kissed Akira deeply. "Come on." He practically dragged Akira into the living room and sat him down on the couch before straddling his lap and laying more kisses on Akira's lips.

Akira grasped at Hikaru's shirt and pulled the other boy a bit further down on top of him. "You and that stupid apron." He untied Hikaru's apron and pulled it off of him, doing the same to him own, throwing them both on the floor as he made a mental note to pick them up later.

Lust evident in his eyes and elsewhere, Hikaru continued to kiss Akira's lips, sometimes moving to nibble at the other man's ear lobe or bite gently at the juncture of his shoulder and neck, or catch his bottom lip on Akira's Adam's apple as he traced his way up Akira's arched neck. Akira, for his part, did a lot of clutching and soft moaning and arching of his neck and panting into Hikaru's ear, something that seemed to drive the other man to distraction.

Hikaru deepened his kisses with Akira, letting his tongue flicker just into Akira's mouth. Akira parted his lips and allowed Hikaru entrance, tangling his own tongue with Hikaru's as Hikaru's deft fingers unbuttoned his shirt and traced along his ribs. He pulled away to look at Akira. "You're a skinny little thing. I need to make dessert for you more often."

Akira rolled his eyes. "I don't care how skinny you think I am. You are not obligated to make me into the next Kurata."

Hikaru slid off Akira's lap and onto the floor, positioning himself between Akira's knees and pressing kisses to Akira's bare stomach. "No, nothing like that. Just so I don't think I'm going to break you."

"Ah!" Akira gasped as Hikaru licked his navel, and spread his legs a big further. "You won't break me. I'm that strong, at least."

Lips finally still, Hikaru's fingers worked the button of Akira's pants, pulling the zipper down as well. "I love you," Hikaru murmured to Akira, looking him in the eyes, before turning his face down to kiss the evidence of Akira's arousal through his boxers. He looked up again. "Are you okay with this?"

His bottom lip trembling slightly, his hands clutching at his knees, Akira nodded and turned his head away. "Yeah... just a little nervous."

Hikaru kissed Akira's stomach again and then started a trail of kisses leading downward, pausing at the top of Akira's boxers to hook a finger there and pull out and down as he continued with his kisses. Akira's breathing was rapidly speeding up, and his knuckles were turning white from the force with which he was clutching at his knees. "Ah, Hi- Hikaru."

Running his tongue lightly along the underside of Akira's cock, Hikaru raised one hand to release Akira's grip and to entwine his own hand with Akira's. Akira gasped loudly, and it was much different from the gasp that his book had elicited the previous day.

Hikaru took great care to make Akira comfortable. He used his lips and tongue to great effect, lingering anywhere that made Akira whimper. He had to concentrate to keep himself from smiling too much and thereby being unable to keep up this constant stream of kisses and glancing licks.

Akira moved his hands to Hikaru's shoulders. They caught at the ends of his hair and Akira's thumbs stroked along his jaw even as he opened his mouth and took Akira inside, feeling the heated throb of him along his tongue.

With a keening wail, Akira's knees drew up toward his chest a bit and his hands moved to Hikaru's hair, fisting where the black hair turned to blonde. "Oh god! Oh god, oh! Hikaru..." He was panting and moaning and arching his back and neck with his head turning one way and the other as he fought to gain control over his actions again.

Enjoying the feel of Akira inside of his mouth, Hikaru tasted him and teased him and drove himself crazy in the process. Akira was beautiful like this: passionate and trusting and wanton with beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he clutched at Hikaru's hair and bit his bottom lip to keep from being too loud.

It took very little time at all for Akira's eyes to shut tight and his knees to tremble as he cried out in abandon and released his seed into Hikaru's mouth. It certainly took no more time than cooking scrambled eggs.

Hikaru pulled away slightly as he felt Akira tense, and was glad of it as his mouth filled with salty come. He swallowed it quickly, but not before a little trickle made its way out of the corner of his mouth. He wiped it away with his finger and reached across the floor to wipe it on his apron. He came back and, taking a deep breath, allowed his head to rest against one of Akira's knees.

Akira, himself, was shaky and unsure. "Hikaru?"

Looking up, Hikaru grabbed Akira's knee (the one he wasn't laying his head on) and squeezed it gently. "Yes?"

"That changes everything, doesn't it?"

"Not really," Hikaru mumbled. He pursed his lips a few times, working out the ache that had formed in them. "It just changes what we do in our spare time."

Akira laughed in exhaustion. "That was a blow job, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Where did you learn?" There was a hint of something in Akira's voice that, to Hikaru, hinted at jealousy.

Hikaru laughed and turned his head to kiss Akira's knee before pulling up the other man's boxers. "In my dreams... the really good ones."

Akira caught Hikaru's gaze, his eyes softening somewhat. "So, there's never been anyone else?"

Picking himself up, Hikaru brought himself to the full height he could be at on his knees, looking directly at Akira. "You're the only one I've ever had feelings like this for, ever. I wasn't going to go and spoil them." He quirked his head to one side. "And you?"

Akira laughed. "My life has always been about go. I can't say there was never time for anything else... just that I never *made* time for it."

"Until now," Hikaru added.

Akira reached out to trace his fingers along Hikaru's lips. "Until you."

Hikaru stood up suddenly and retrieved the aprons from the floor. "Hey, how about we do some laundry? I think we've got enough for a few loads, now."

"Hikaru?"

Turning to Akira, Hikaru clutched the aprons in his hands. "Speed go, then?"

Akira blushed. "I can... maybe do something about that?"

"No. I... I don't think you're ready yet." Hikaru let the hands fall to his sides, each clutching one apron.

Akira's blush deepened. "Let me just go get, um, cleaned up?"

Later that day, Ashiwara called him. He had several things to talk about. First, what did he know about that pretty girl from the go party? Second, what kind of chances did he think that Ogata-sensei had of holding on to the Tengen title again? Third, what was he thinking missing a shidougo session when a very busy Ashiwara was next on the call list?

Akira recalled the events of the day, blushing again, and decided that being yelled at by Ashiwara, who wasn't even mean to dogs who bit him, was definitely more than a fair trade-off for the day.  
\----------

SPECIAL BONUS OMAKE:  
\-----Cold Shower----- a drabble

Hikaru's eyes were wide as he stood in the shower. He had given Akira head. He could still taste the other man in his mouth, picture his expressions, hear his moans, feel his hands tangled in his hair, sense the man crossing the line from passive to passive-aggressive... And, god, but he wanted it again. He wanted to splay Akira across their side-by-side futons and kiss up his bare thighs and spend his night there, in the echoes of Akira's breathy moans and the fumblings of his own eager fingers. But this was not the time. Hikaru turned the hot water off and felt his teeth begin to chatter a moment later as the cold water sent its icy chill down his body. Hikaru turned off the water and grabbed for the last towel in the bathroom, a thankfully-large pink handtowel. This was all the more reason for them to do laundry.


	11. Reluctance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira and Waya try to be friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah

Akira sat on the couch, the empty laundry basket at his feet. He had just dumped the contents onto the seat next to him; fresh from the laundromat. He started to fold.

Even doing laundry that morning had been different. He and Hikaru had intended to do it the night before, but certain things came up... like oral sex and speed go.

As he picked up a pair of Hikaru's boxers to fold, Akira blushed and made quick work of them. He hadn't explicitly stated what "more" he was promising Hikaru if the other man got to the semi-finals of the Honinbou tournament. It had simply been that: "more". But, last night had been "more", as well. It had been overwhelming, to Akira. Regardless of what Hikaru had said, it would change things.

It would change how Akira went about his morning routine because he might catch a glimpse himself in the foggy mirror after his shower and feel flustered. It would change how he would feel when he knew Hikaru was looking at him with lust evident in his expression. It would change they way they lived, the way they worked, and all because Akira had given in to the faintest glimmer of pull on his heart. He slammed the towel he'd just folded into the basket and stood up.

Hikaru was gone for the evening, attending a children's go event. Akira had intended to go, but backed out at the last minute; not really sure if he could keep his composure around Hikaru. But as he looked around the empty apartment, he knew he was being ridiculous. With no one else in sight, no noises coming from Hikaru still snoring lightly in the bedroom, or taking a shower in the bathroom, or making a mess in the kitchen for Akira to clean up... it was silent. Akira knew he could turn on the television, but it still hadn't been pulled out of the corner from the go party they'd had.

Akira paired together socks for a while, folding everything neatly and putting it in the basket before bringing it to their room and putting it away. Hikaru had left his sleep shirt on the floor, and a crumpled up business card for a go salon that had opened recently in one of the seedier parts of town. Akira picked them up and put the room to rights and decided to see about food.

There was a note on the table about food in the refrigerator. Akira took a glance in, saw that it was cold stir fry and rice, and sighed. It wasn't quite what he was in the mood for. He put another bottle of the wine, which was leftover from the party, into the refrigerator and left the apartment, making sure he had money and the key with him.

It only took a few minutes to get to the convenience store. Akira looked around in the freezer cases in the back, bypassing the bento boxes and looking at the onigiri, grabbing a few from the case. He also took a small tub of vanilla ice cream, and grabbed two cream breads, as well. He was in the mood for junk food, something that, against all odds, Hikaru didn't really try to bring into the house (unless ramen counted).

Just as he was starting to unlock the door to the apartment, his bag dangling from his arm, Waya came out of his own apartment. "Touya!"

Akira looked up. "Waya. Good evening."

Waya laughed. "Um... hi. You, uh... You guys have another party last night or something?"

Blushing fiercely, Akira finished opening the door and started to barge in. "Good night, Waya."

"No! Wait!" Waya grabbed his sleeve and Akira turned back. "C'mon... don't be like that." He smiled again. "I was going to head out on the town for the night, but... do you want to talk? I mean... we are neighbors," Waya finished weakly.

Akira smiled. "I was about to have a glass of wine. Would you care for one?"

Waya smiled. "Sure."

"Do you mind if I eat?"

"No, go ahead. Did Hikaru leave you something?"

Akira opened the refrigerator and removed the wine, gesturing to the stir fry and rice. "He left that. But I wanted something a little less good for me." He grabbed two glasses and set them on the table before setting to work on the cork of the wine bottle.

Waya smiled. "Mind if I have it? I don't eat healthy very often and my mother keeps calling about it."

"Only if you'll microwave it for yourself. I'm, er, not allowed near it anymore." Akira poured the wine and set the bottle on the table.

Waya quirked an eyebrow and let out a chuckle. "I'm sure that one day that would be a very funny story to hear, but you look like you have something else on your mind than not being able to use the microwave. I'll listen..."

Akira opened his food and took a bite of the first onigiri, noting that it was bland, but not unpleasant. "It's mostly about last night, actually."

Sticking the food in the microwave, Waya started it up and leaned back against the counter. "Did you have sex finally?"

It was several minutes before Akira could speak again. He had been momentarily occupied with choking on his onigiri. "I guess that we... sort of... had sex. It wasn't, er, all the way. But, it was a big step up from just kissing."

Waya opened the microwave, peeling back the plastic wrap on the bowl inside, and digging out a piece of broccoli to try. As he munched on it, he spoke. "Let me guess; he did all of the work, you couldn't bring yourself to do anything, and now you're not sure how you should go about doing such a thing."

Akira's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Something like that. It had a bit more to do with the fact that I told him he could have 'more' if he got to the semi-finals of the Honinbou tournament... but then he got it anyway."

"It sounds to me like *you* got it. If you didn't do anything for him, then there's still your side of the bargain to hold up. He'll probably work just as hard to get to that as he would if you said you'd go all the way."

"You think?" Akira chewed thoughtfully on his second onigiri. "I just... I don't want him to lose the momentum for this tournament. I don't want to keep him from the title."

Waya searched through the drawers until he found a pair of chopsticks. He brought his food to the table and started eating. "Shouldn't you be worried about the title, yourself? Yeah, he beat you in one game of the prelims, but if things keep going like this, you'll have to play him again. Are you just going to let him win again?"

"I never let him win in the first place!" Touya slammed the rest of his onigiri onto the table, and then made a face as he began to clean it up. "If you saw the kifu for that game, or saw the game itself, you'll know he just went beyond me. For once, I couldn't keep up."

"You don't hate him for that, do you?"

Akira shook his head as he washed off his hands. "I haven't hated him since after the second time I played him." He sat down at the table and opened his ice cream. "Those first two games... Before he somehow reverted back to just a good player instead of a great one... I still remember every move, and how awful I felt when I talked to him later and he knew absolutely nothing about the game. He couldn't even hold the stones."

Waya looked curious. "Would you show me those games?"

Akira looked at him closely for a moment, then closed his ice cream and put it in the freezer again. "Yes. Come into the living room." Waya followed him in and sat on the far side of the two boards from Akira. While the couch and television hadn't been moved from the party, the third board had quickly made its way back to the bedroom.

Half an hour later, Waya was sitting, shaking his head. "There's no way."

"I thought so, too. I was playing against most of my father's pro friends with no handicap, and here comes this brash kid my age who is playing *shidougo* with me and not taking the komi into consideration." He laughed weakly. "It hurt, and I didn't know what to do even after I played him again." Akira gestured to the second board where he's recreated the other game. "But I respected him as a player after that."

"What happened after that?" Waya leaned forward toward Akira.

"I joined the Kaio go club just to play against him again. And he was... I can't say that he was awful. But he was nowhere near the level he'd been at. I was disappointed. And then I finally took the pro exam, and he became an insei."

Waya laughed. "So he was telling the truth."

Akira looked up from the board. "Hmm?"

"When Hikaru walked into the insei class, he was telling everyone that you considered him your rival. We all laughed about it, especially since he stayed at the bottom of the class for a while, but then he suddenly got a lot better... and fast... and we all started to wonder what had happened."

Akira was silent for a moment, but a smile spread across his face. "He just can't help it, can he? He has to be the center of attention."

Waya laughed. "That's Hikaru, all right."

"So, you think everything will be fine?" Akira's eyes were tinged with red.

"I think that as long as the two of you want to be together, you'll be together. I also think that even if you had sex tonight, he'd still try his hardest to get the Honinbou title. I don't know why, but that one always seemed to be his favorite... that and Meijin."

Akira looked up suddenly. "Has he told you about Sai?"

Waya shook his head. "No. Wait, what about Sai? Do you know something? Tell me!"

Akira laughed. "No. I only know that I played him. And I have my suspicions. I told Hikaru that telling me could wait until he had a title." He looked down at the board in front of him and placed another stone. "He knows something, I'm sure, but he's kept it a secret so far... Please, don't let on that I told you."

Nodding, Waya picked up the bowl that he'd carried in from the kitchen. "I'll keep it quiet." He stood up and stretched out his legs. "I sort of envy the two of you... your entire lives are nothing but go."

"That isn't something to be envied, Waya."

"No, I think it is. Sure, it's complicated, but on a go board you know exactly where you stand. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to scrape together rent for next month."

Akira tilted his head slightly and stood up as well. "Would you like a few more jobs?"

"If you're offering, sure! You get all of the good stuff."

"I think I'd like to have a few more days off with Hikaru. The Go Institute seems to have something against us having similar schedules."

"Do they know about your, uh, relationship?"

Akira took the bowl from Waya's hand and led the way back into the kitchen. "They know we live together. I don't know if they think we really hate each other, or if it's all just some cosmic accident, or if someone knows and is behind it all..." He smiled. "Right now, all I have are conspiracy theories, and they don't do any good."

Waya sat down at the table. "You're not so bad."

"Who said I was?"

Waya laughed. "When we were insei, no one was very fond of you just because you were so good."

"But you liked Hikaru."

"Yeah, well, at that time? He wasn't that good."

Akira smiled. "How about a game?"

Waya smiled in return. "That sounds great."

Just as they finished playing, Hikaru walked in. "Hey! Oh, Waya. Hey. What are you doing here?"

"Playing go with your boyfriend."

Hikaru blushed. "Why do you have to make that sound dirty?"

Waya stood up. "Well, I take it that's my cue to leave. Akira? Let me know about those jobs. And we should have another game! Hikaru? I'll see you later."

Hikaru stood, dumbstruck, by the door after Waya left. "That... was Waya, right?"

"Yeah. He came over for dinner. But, don't worry, we just talked and played go."

"Was he any good?"

Akira gestured to the board in front of him. "See for yourself."

Hikaru's attention was caught by the game on the other board. "You told him about our first game?"

"Yeah. Do you mind?"

"No. Not at all." He smiled and walked around, standing behind Akira and putting his hands on the other man's shoulders. "It's a nice memory."

Akira smiled. "I'm giving him the Amateur Tour job."

"That's... a big deal. Is it going to be okay?"

Akira looked up at him. "I'll make it okay."

Hikaru reached down and pulled Akira to his feet, spinning him around and kissing him. "You make everything okay."

Akira draped his arms around Hikaru's neck. "And you make me okay."


	12. Rumors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rumors have a way of making their way around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah

Akira looked at his schedule and sighed. It was nothing but mornings again. And while he preferred to work the mornings, it did mean that he very rarely saw his... boyfriend... who preferred to work the evenings. They both knew that their schedules had been set up based on those particular hours in which they were known to work better, but it still seemed like someone's hand was in the mix as they usually ended up on different sides of the city on the few weekends that they were both scheduled at the same time. Since their first game after moving in together, they had yet to be seen in the same building other than their apartment building, the local convenience and grocery stores, and the laundromat. And rumors, as always, have a way of making their way around.

"So, Akira... Have you and Shindou been having any problems lately?" Ashiwara looked at Akira over his coffee mug.

Setting down his glass of iced tea, Akira shook his head. "No, we're perfectly happy. Why, do I have a strange look on my face or something?"

"Oh, no! It's just... people are talking. I wondered if they even knew what they were talking about."

Akira stirred his iced tea with his straw. "What are they saying?"

Ashiwara picked up his spoon, toying with it as he spoke. "Well, it's just that you and Shindou haven't been seen anywhere together lately, so everyone thinks that you hate each other. Even Ogata-san was wondering whether things were a little rough, and he *knows*."

"Ashiwara, it isn't some big secret. But, we play at different times. I would go to his games, but I always seem to have something going on at the same time, and the same with Hikaru. And there's no point in going to a go parlor when we have three boards at home. And Hikaru just put a magnetic go set on the refrigerator, as well. We're hardly away from each other when we're both home."

"Where is he now?"

Akira made a face. "He's at the train station, buying tickets to Nagoya." He smiled. "I was going to go with him, but he was coming through that station anyway on the way back from a go event. You know it takes forever to buy tickets in advance, but we have to take an early train, and I know Hikaru too well to think he'll actually be awake and ready on time."

Ashiwara laughed. "He does seem the type." He took a sip of coffee. "So, he's going to Nagoya with you?"

"Yes. When I got my game card, he called down to the Go Association and said that he would need those three days off. I... I wondered what for at first, and then I see him lugging his suitcase down out of the closet the next day and realized that, somehow, we were going on vacation together."

"Are you going to an onsen or anything?"

Akira took the lemon off of his glass and bit into it, enjoying the sour liquid that seeped from the fruit. "No, just a regular hotel. But... we're only going to have one bed."

"Was that planned?" Ashiwara looked skeptical.

"Uh... yes, actually. I made the reservations for the hotel. Hikaru doesn't know yet."

Ashiwara motioned for the waitress to bring him more coffee. "And you're leaving tomorrow?"

Akira nodded. "Probably around seven or eight. We'll be back on Sunday evening. I'll probably give you a call on Monday?"

"Monday would be great. I have the day off and Nase is coming over to see my apartment."

"You're seeing her?" Akira put his lemon down.

Ashiwara blushed. "She's a pretty girl wanting to give me attention. Who am I to say no?"

Akira laughed and took the bill when the waitress came with more coffee for Ashiwara.

That evening, Akira checked his suitcase, and Hikaru's, making sure that they had everything they could possibly need. There were certain things in Hikaru's suitcase that he thought probably wouldn't see the light of day, or, rather, the dark of night. But, as he thought about his own actions as of late, that tube of lubricant and the condoms might get used sooner than he was really expecting. Just in case, he left them in Hikaru's suitcase.

Hikaru made instant ramen and sandwiches for dinner, claiming that he was tired from fighting back and forth with the ticket agents at the station. He had been sent back and forth between two windows until one of the supervisors recognized him as a go player and straightened everything out. They'd even gotten a free upgrade on compartments when Hikaru had mentioned who his traveling partner was. Hikaru joked that he needed to start carrying Akira's picture in his wallet to use as a discount card with old men. Akira stole a bite of his sandwich.

They played a game, went to bed, and slept back to back until the alarm clock went off. Akira was quick to throw back the covers and start getting ready. Hikaru curled up into a ball, ducking further into the futon and groaning. "Why're we getting up so early, 'gain?"

Akira laughed; his voice scratchy with sleep. "Because we have a train to catch in an hour and a half, and we want to get there early to make sure that everything is going to go fine."

"Mmm." Hikaru attempted to cover his head even more, but Akira pulled him out of the futon and left him sprawled on the cool tatami floor. "That wasn't nice."

"Neither is trying to make us late."

"When d'you get strong enough to do that?"

Akira smiled. "It was your cooking. And maybe the cleaning." He threw a clean towel at Hikaru's head, hitting him in the jaw.

Hikaru picked up the towel and pulled himself to his feet. "Mean Akira. Makin' me get up," he muttered as he walked toward the bathroom.

"You're the one who decided to come," Akira reminded him.

"I know." Hikaru yawned and rubbed his eyes. "And I won't regret it once I'm actually awake."

Akira smiled and began to get his clothes ready.

When Hikaru came back into the room, dripping water from his hair, with his sleep clothes balled up and under his arm and a towel draped loosely around his waist, Akira was quick to take his own towel and exit the room.

Akira hated taking the second shower because he didn't like when the water ran cold and when he was stepping into cool water and when the mirror was already fogged up with handprints on it. But Hikaru had, for once, actually cleaned up. And, this way, he would more than likely be awake when Akira went back to the room. Had he taken the first shower, that probably wouldn't be the case.

Making the shower quick so that he didn't have to deal with the cold water, Akira toweled himself off a bit and tied the towel around his waist and went back to the room. He noticed Hikaru, but not enough to realize that the other man was there. Akira pulled off his towel and began getting dressed.

"Damn, Akira," Hikaru said, his hands clutched on his towel in the process of putting it in the hamper.

Akira yelped and held his pants in front of himself. "Sorry! I..." He laughed at himself. "I guess I figured you'd be making breakfast already."

Hikaru grinned. "I'll get a start on that. But, first?" He approached Akira and gave him a steamy kiss. "I thought the parts were nice by themselves, but all together they're even better."

Blushing and clutching ineffectually to his pants, Akira cleared his throat. "Breakfast?"

"Right. Breakfast." Hikaru looked at Akira again, from head to toe, and left the room. Akira dressed quickly.

They were ready more quickly than either Hikaru or Akira had imagined was possible, so Hikaru made pancakes. They were from a mix, and the first few were a little, well, burnt... but, on a whole, they turned out rather well. However, Hikaru managed to pour copious amounts of syrup on his shirt and had to go change before they left. Akira fretted that it might stain and made sure to scrub it in the sink before putting it in the hamper, muttering that it was going to get mildewy in the two nights that they would be gone. Hikaru kissed him and he had no further complaints.

At the train station, they were nearly separated by the crowds rushing though, but Hikaru finally grabbed Akira's hand and tugged him through the building. They were fifteen minutes early and had to sit on a bench for a while before they could get on.

But when then took their seats, they were comfortable. They had a compartment to themselves, plush seats, a magnetic go set to keep them occupied, and each other. Other than that, there wasn't anything pressing that they would need until they were safely in Nagoya. Until then, they would talk, and play go, and do the very same things that they did at home with, perhaps, one relatively new exception.


	13. Reactions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A game in Nagoya ends up as "something more".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

The room was spacious, clean, and yet mostly filled by the large bed against the far wall. Hikaru bounded over to it, dropped his suitcase at the bottom of the bed, and jumped in the air, landing with a soft *thump* on the mattress and upsetting the blankets and pillows. "You got a bed!"

Akira set his own suitcase by the dresser. "Yes, I asked for a bed. This is a western-style hotel, but it was the most reasonably-priced one for being close to the game hall."

Hikaru suddenly sat up. "You only got one bed. Akira!" He was smiling with an extra curve to his lips. "You lecher."

"I am no such thing." Akira resisted the urge to touch his face to see if his blush was burning his face like it seemed. "They were out of two-bed rooms when I called. I figured that you were adult enough to share with me without a fuss. We may not share the same futon, but we've been sleeping next to each other for a while now. I assumed it would be fine."

Getting up and setting his suitcase, if not the bed, to rights, Hikaru stretched his arms over his head amd looked out the window and over the city. "How much time before you report to the go center?"

Akira checked his watch. "Three and a half hours or so. But, we need to unpack first, and get lunch."

Hikaru made a face and sat down on the edge of the bed. "We could have left later, you know."

"You always have to allow for complications. What if the train had stopped on the way here because a tree had fallen across the tracks? You never know."

"I usually just take my chances."

Akira came over and sat next to him. "I know. That's why I made sure to tell you that we needed to leave by eight. If I had told you that I wasn't due here until two o'clock, you would have said that we could leave right after lunch, and I would have missed my appointment even if I'd let you handle the hotel check-in."

Hikaru frowned. "I don't like it when you're right."

"You don't seem to like me when I'm wrong, either." Akira laughed.

Brushing Akira's hair away from his face, Hikaru leaned in and brushed his lips softly against the other man's. "I like you all the time, no matter that I'm currently screwing up saying."

Akira caught at Hikaru's lips, making the kiss more firm. "All the more reason that you should be glad to be here early. We can have lunch and get in a game before we go." He looked at Hikaru quizzically. "Are you going to come with me? I know this part isn't the game... just the press session, really..."

Hikaru cupped Akira's hand in his knee and stroked it gently. "Yeah. I'll be there."

"How about that game?"

Pulling out the magnetic goban, Hikaru set it up quickly and said, "I'm white this time. You always get it."

"Okay, Hikaru." Akira grinned and turned the set so that he could grab the small black magnets.

The game, as always, was incredibly good.

When Akira arrived at the go center with Hikaru in tow, there were people who whispered. Akira knew he overheard someone saying, "Since when did Shindou-pro have a game here tomorrow?" Hikaru, on the other hand, heard an elderly gentleman laugh sickly and say, "Everyone knows they hate each other. What are they both doing here?" Hikaru took the opportunity to walk a bit closer to Akira who gave him a strange look, but allowed it.

Akira took a seat at the low table in the front of the room next to an opponent that he didn't know well at all. But, he'd seen the man play, and wasn't worried in the slightest. Hikaru sat near the back of the room, already sprawling out on his cushion instead of even trying for seiza. Akira smiled to see it.

Only a few moments later, the press began to enter. Akira recognized "Weekly Go"'s Nagoya correspondant and a few others, but there were many others whom he didn't recognize, such as a few teenagers in the bunch, perhaps doing articles for their school papers. Even as they sat down, they were all whispering amongst themselves. Akira couldn't help but think it was somehow about Hikaru, as it always seemed to be.

The press session started and the first question tipped Akira off about what was to come. "Touya-san, why is Shindou-san here?"

Akira was momentarily taken aback, but found an answer soon enough. "He's a friend and is traveling with me."

A woman near the back asked, "There are rumors going around that you and Shindou-san have a long-standing rivalry. What of this?"

"We consider each other eternal rivals who always push each other to the best game of go. We are, of course, aiming for the Hand of God."

"Do you think you've found it?" the "Weekly Go" correspondant asked.

Akira smiled brightly. "I think we grow ever-closer each day."

One of the other reporters turned to Hikaru who had a look of amusement on his face. "Shindou-san, how often do the two of you play?"

Hikaru looked around at the reporters. "Hey, this isn't my press conference."

"Hikaru, get up here," Akira said, gesturing toward the cushion next to him. His opponent looked murderous about the fact that he wasn't even on the outskirts of attention here.

Hikaru took the offered seat and rolled his eyes, answering the last question. "We play several times a day."

One of the teenagers asked a question. "How do you play several times a day when no one ever sees you together?"

Akira cleared his throat. "Because we live together."

There was a moment of silence in the room and then a frenzy of questions. "How long have you lived together?" "Who does the cooking?" "Where do you live?" "Are you sleeping together?"

The last question took Akira off guard and he sat in stunned silence. Hikaru put a hand on his shoulder and looked toward him with care, ignoring the flashes of cameras taking pictures. "Are you okay? Do you care if I tell?"

Akira looked up at Hikaru, saw the worry in his eyes, and turned toward the press again. "We've lived together for several months now. Hikaru cooks. He's excellent, and I do the cleaning in return. We live in an apartment near the Go Organization in Tokyo and play go whenever we're together which isn't often because our schedules are almost entirely different. We sleep in futons next to each other. Now, if you'll excuse us..." Akira stood up and left the room with Hikaru trailing after him, looking almost apologetic.

They were back in the hotel room before either of them said a word.

Akira took off his shoes and lay down on the bed. "I didn't expect them to be such vultures today." He looked at Hikaru. "Since when did any of that have anything to do with go?"

Hikaru sat down on the bed and looked down at Akira with a soft expression on his face. "Because we are go. Or, we might as well be sometimes. They need something more newsworthy than the fact that you're going to play some guy that no one cares about and will win without even trying."

"I didn't come out and tell them that we're dating, did I?"

Hikaru laughed. "Not in so many words. They probably know, and can even publish photos to back up the fact that, oh my god, I touched your shoulder and looked at you, but there's nothing they can actually use to say that, yes, we are together, completely, forever."

Akira turned onto his side facing Hikaru, his body curling toward the other man. "I wanted to say it. I wanted to say that they could go ahead and publish the wedding announcement even though we hadn't decided on a day, a time, who would be the bride, or even the color scheme."

"You think of everything," Hikaru said. "Just... one thing." He walked over to his suitcase and rummaged around in it a bit. He took an item out and Akira blushed fiercely, remembering what he'd found in Hikaru's suitcase the night before. Was this it?

Hikaru sat on the bed again and grasped Akira's hand in his. "Will you marry me?" He held up a ring box and opened it for Akira to see.

The band was a simple gold number that gleamed in the light. Akira looked between it and Hikaru several times, his eyes welling up with emotion. "You..." He took a deep, shuddery breath. "You... didn't get onyx and opals to look like go stones? I'm disappointed!" He laughed, and took the ring from the box, slipping it onto his finger. "It fits perfectly."

Hikaru laughed. "When I took a go stone to the store to size it against, the lady at the counter looked at me funny."

Akira smiled. "When did you do this?"

"Yesterday." He paused. "You don't think it really takes *that* long to get a pair of train tickets, do you?" Hikaru reached up and smoothed back Akira's hair.

Looking at the ring on his finger, Akira clenched his fist and held it to his chest. "I do, by the way."

"I figured. That's usually what it means when they put on the ring."

"I... I'm ready."

"To get married? But, we have all the plans to make still."

"No," Akira said, sitting up and taking off his jacket. "I want to make love to you."

Hikaru blushed. "Are you... sure?"

Akira bit his bottom lip, but nodded, beginning to unbutton his shirt. "I think I knew it was going to happen. I think I knew after our first game that we were going to be seeing a lot of each other in life... I just didn't imagine it taking on quite this context."

"When do you..."

Akira pulled his shirt from his pants and took it off. "I thought that was pretty obvious."

Hikaru began rummaging around in his suitcase again, quickly finding the lubricant and condoms. "I, um, packed these sort of, just in case."

Akira nodded. "I know. I saw them last night when I was making sure we had everything."

"I'm glad I didn't put the ring in until this morning, then."

"Is that why you were still in the room when I got out of the shower?"

Hikaru sat down on the bed again. "You're a smart one, Touya-san."

Akira smiled. "You're not so bad yourself."

They both stripped down to their underwear and kneeled on the bed as though they were about to play a game. Akira made the first move, to his own surprise, by kissing Hikaru soundly and pressing against his chest. Hikaru responded in earnest, urging Akira to lay down as he worked a line of kisses along his neck, eliciting a long stream of moans from Akira's mouth.

"You make me crazy," Akira murmured as he lay against the pillow, his head falling to one side as Hikaru did the most fabulous things to his collarbone. Hikaru didn't respond with words. He simply removed Akira's boxers and then his own.

By this point, they were both hard, and whatever reservations that Akira had before starting had diminished now in the face of the pleasureful sensations that filled his whole being. Hikaru had made room for himself between Akira's spread legs, bringing one of them up to hook around his own side. He leaned down and stroked Akira's face gently, whispering romantic ideals and passionate dreams in his ear, causing Akira to flush prettily and spread his legs even wider.

The preparation was simple. Hikaru put a dollop of lubricant on his fingers and smoothed them against Akira's entrance, penetrating with one finger. He worked Akira open, plying him with kisses and more gentle words throughout, until the other man was panting with need, his hands clutching at his legs so he could hold himself open for Hikaru.

Hikaru slid on a condom, and positioned himself at Akira's entrance. "This might sting a little, you know."

Akira nodded, his face already pink with exertion. "I know. I'm ready."

Pushing forward, Hikaru felt Akira give way for him, allowing him deep inside. The feeling was heady and dizzying and overwhelming, nearly bringing him to the pinnacle before he'd settled himself in fully the first time. Akira clutched at Hikaru's shoulders and trembled slightly. He was panting heavily right into Hikaru's ear, and it affected him as much as how hot and tight Akira was.

Hikaru found his calm through no help from Akira and pulled out slowly, holding for a moment before pushing back in. Akira pushed back against him and made little noises that seemed to have been designed to drive Hikaru insane. He increased his rhythm until they were moving like a well-oiled machine. When Hikaru glimpsed Akira reaching a hand down between them, not to grasp at his own member, but to let his fingers feel just how Hikaru was entering him; he found himself falling into an ever-worldly oblivion. His hips beat an even faster rhythm against Akira's backside as he kissed him deeply.

Akira arched into Hikaru's embrace, his legs clutched ineffectually around his lover. He let his hand fall back to slide softly up his own length, and then tipped over the edge, crying out against Hikaru's skin as he came, feeling Hikaru lay his own weight on top of Akira's body as he, too, found orgasm.

They lay in a shuddering, hazy existence for several moments that seemed overly real, with every breath an echo of the one before until they quieted to a calm. Hikaru pulled himself from Akira and lay back against the bed with his eyes wide. Akira turned to him and smiled softly. "Do you think we're going to be happy?"

Hikaru laughed and eased himself up into a sitting position. "I think we're going to be ecstatic for the rest of our lives." He threw the condom away and grimaced at the state of himself, his expression growing more dramatic as he looked at Akira. "C'mon, we need a shower."

"Together?"

"We just had sex, Akira. Or didn't you notice?" He smiled and held out a hand to help Akira up. "I think it'll be okay if I see you naked for a little while longer. Not that I'm minding in the slightest..."

Akira grinned and let Hikaru help him up, wincing as he put weight on his legs. "Oh, god. I have to sit in seiza tomorrow. I'm going to make it a quick game... a *very* quick game."

Hikaru pulled Akira close and held him there, smiling and caressing Akira's upper arms with his thumbs. "I'll play you after that... in bed."

"I think I'll still be sore," Akira said, groaning slightly.

"I hadn't planned on that. I was talking about a game of go, actually." Hikaru laughed. "For once, you have something on your brain other than go."

Akira blushed. "Let's go take that shower."

The rest of the evening was spent indulging in a warm shower, fluffy towels, go, room service, and each other's company. All in all, a perfect evening, except the dull ache that echoed through Akira's body at odd times. Thankfully, Hikaru's kisses were a powerful pain reliever in that they made him forget everything, sometimes even the move he'd planned for their game.


	14. Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The go world finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Hikaru set a warm mug of tea on the floor within Akira's reach and made enough room for himself in Akira's futon to wrap his arms around Akira and hold the other man close. "It's okay. Nothing bad is going to happen because of this."

Akira lay bonelessly in bed; his eyes red-rimmed and tired. "They know, Hikaru. They know that we're... we're gay, with each other, with the blow jobs and the lubricant and the whole deal, and the ring, and I don't know what's going to happen." His voice strained in spite of the strength behind it.

"Even if they're waiting outside the apartment right now and writing articles about just how gay we are, let's face the facts here, Akira. The only place where we really matter is the world of go. Right now, we're on top of the world. They just want to know, Akira, and telling them doesn't mean we're going to have to give up on our dream of the Hand of God."

Akira shook slightly, even as Hikaru smoothed a hand firmly along his spine in an attempt to calm him. "If that reporter hadn't asked if I was still a virgin, things might have been fine."

Hikaru pulled the other man close again and kissed his cheek. "When you said 'No', I wanted to kiss you so bad."

Letting out a weak laugh, Akira turned onto his back with some effort and looked at the ceiling. "Do you think they're going to put that in the article about my win?"

"If you're talking about your fifteen-minute, twenty-move win, then, no, I don't think so. That's the kind of thing that's newsworthy on its own."

Akira was silent, his eyes glazed over.

Hikaru sat up and straddled Akira, putting a hand on either side of his head. "Look at me, Akira."

With effort, Akira focused his eyes and saw worry in Hikaru's own.

"Even if the whole world knows that you had a dick up your ass and liked it, that doesn't change the fact that you're close enough to the Hand of God to taste it, and this just points even more toward it." 

Akira let his eyes wander to the window, but Hikaru suddenly grabbed his jaw just hard enough to startle him. He looked at Hikaru again, his arms still limp by his sides.

"Are you this ashamed of our relationship?" Hikaru's eyes were flashing in the darkness.

"No, I..." Akira trailed off. He couldn't begin to describe the look on Hikaru's face, but he recognized the hurt there, and recognized that he was the cause.

Hikaru stood up and took a step toward the door. Akira couldn't muster the energy to say anything. Shaking his head, Hikaru said, "I'm going to sleep on the couch." He walked off, leaving Akira alone with a rapidly-cooling mug of tea.

Akira's mind took off in a thousand directions at once until he exhausted even that and fell into a sleep that did nothing to take the edge off of the next morning.

When Akira crawled out of bed the next day, he nearly knocked over the untouched mug of tea, but managed to right it before it spilled. He smiled sadly at the effort that Hikaru had put into trying to calm him the night before and walked slowly out into the living room. To his surprise, Hikaru was not there. When he glanced at the clock, he saw that he had slept until almost noon. It wasn't too odd for Hikaru to be up without an alarm, but Akira wondered where he'd gone, already missing the morning kiss to which he'd grown accustomed.

The kitchen was also empty of Hikaru, but had a note on the table and a plate of fresh fruit. Akira read the note, smiling at Hikaru's sloppy writing. "Akira, the press are not outside the door. News says that Ogata was arrested yesterday for sex with a minor. Whole thing will blow over. I'm at the store getting food. We're out of meat and bread. Be back soon. Hope you feel better. Love, Hikaru"

Akira poured himself a glass of juice and sat at the table, picking at the pear slices on the plate. If Ogata had done something like that, especially with his go not being the best as of late, there was a chance that Akira's own sexual orientation wasn't going to be plastered on the *front page* of Weekly Go, at least. It was a comforting thought, but it didn't really put his mind to ease.

Fifteen minutes later, as Akira ate the last grape on the plate and finished his juice, he stood up with purpose and strode to the bathroom. He showered quickly and just threw a towel on his head as he raced to the bedroom to get dressed. Within another fifteen minutes, he was out the door. He left a note on the kitchen table saying simply, "I'll be back. Love, Akira".

When Akira came back nearly two hours later, Hikaru was waiting in the living room, reading the murder mystery that Akira had been reading at their go party only a week or so before. "Hey! You're back. Where did you go?"

Akira sat next to Hikaru and pulled something out of his pocket. Hikaru marked his spot in the book and set it on the other side of him on the couch. "Shindou Hikaru, this is for you." He opened up the box in his hand to show Hikaru the ring inside that matched his own.

"How did you... Why?" Hikaru reached for the ring and put it on.

Smiling, Akira pointed to the ring box. "I recognized the logo on the box and went there, asking whether you'd gotten a ring for yourself as well. You hadn't, so I got it for you. If we're going to be together, we might as well let the world know."

"Akira..." Hikaru clutched at the ring on his finger.

"There's also going to be an announcement of our engagement on page two of Weekly Go." Akira smiled. "Amano is going to write it. Ogata is going to have a big article on the front page, but it's going to be a bit more about what's going to happen to his title since he's going to be in jail. The article about my win will also be on the front, but it's not going to mention you."

Hikaru smiled. "Good. I don't want to hog your glory."

Akira reached over and grabbed Hikaru's hand, his own ring gleaming on his finger. "Thank you for everything you've ever done for me."

"But I just-"

"No. Don't try to duck out of it." Akira laughed and caressed Hikaru's go-roughened hands. "Take some responsibility for what you've done."

"And what, exactly, have I done?"

"Isn't it obvious? You made me love you."

Hikaru laughed loudly, pulling Akira into a tight hug that ended with the other man practically on Hikaru's lap. "We need to start making plans, you know."

Akira nodded. "Everyone we know reads Weekly Go, so they'll want to know the date."

"Isn't it obvious?" Hikaru asked with a knowing grin on his face.

"May 5th so you can remember?" Akira leaned in toward Hikaru.

"Well, I was going to say tomorrow so that I can start calling you my husband, but I guess things may take a little longer to work out than that. May 5th it is, then." He leaned toward Akira to meet him halfway, their lips meeting in a now-practiced way.

When they pulled away, Akira smiled brightly and Hikaru was glad to see it. "Did you get anything good for dinner?"

Hikaru laughed. "Chicken. Although, I wouldn't mind having you."

Akira blushed. "Now, Hikaru, you know I'm for dessert."


	15. Momentum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A match unlike no other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Waya stood up and raised his glass. "To the happy couple - may they find the Hand of God!"

Everyone cheered and toasted the only two men in the room who weren't paying Waya any attention whatsoever. They were too absorbed in their game. Waya had laughed at Hikaru for wanting to play a game of go at his wedding reception, but when Akira's eyes had also lit up at the idea, Waya agreed to be Hikaru's best man and, along with Ashiwara as Akira's best man, commentate on the match.

The match going on between Hikaru and Akira was world-class. Both men had played a lot of games in their lives, but were now going above and beyond all of that with a game that had brought a tear to Touya Kouyo's eye... something his son's wedding hadn't even done.

Hikaru's mother finally met Akira's mother and they got along incredibly well, going so far as to exchange recipes and cry in earnest while clutching each other's hands when their boys cut the cake that they refused to have even a bite of before they played their game.

The game ended with a half-moku win for Hikaru, but few people noticed as they were too shocked to see Hikaru grab Akira and nearly drag him across the goban to kiss him soundly. There were cheers from most of the audience, even as Akira's leg knocked a goke over.

The ceremony had been quick: a formal civil ceremony with the adding of names to the family registers. The reception was the big to-do. It had taken several months to organize everything. Hikaru and Akira had been overwhelmed with the sheer number of things which needed to be done until Akari showed up on their doorstep with Hikaru's mother and they took over, only asking the "boys" for the bare minimum of input. As both men's play schedules had, for some reason, increased since the engagement article had been printed, they were thankful for more time home and more quiet, and sometimes not so quiet, games of go. (Other not so quiet things waited until Akari and Hikaru's mother had gone home... except for that one time.)

That the whole thing had gone off without a hitch was a surprise to everyone. Akira was expecting Ogata to break from prison to try to stop it; Hikaru was expecting swarms of locusts with a light sprinkle of frogs; Waya was just hoping that they had actually decided to go somewhere for their honeymoon. He didn't want to ask to stay over at Isumi's place *again*.

When everyone had finished eating, discussing the game, and discussing the couple, Waya pulled Hikaru and Akira over to the microphone. "Hey, everybody! Does anyone know these guys?" There was a cheer in response. "This is Shindou Hikaru, and over here on my other side if Touya Akira." He grinned. "They just got married and played the best game of go I've even seen in a matter of hours. Now, the happy couple is going to tell us all about their plans for the future."

Akira took the microphone first. "Thank you, Waya." He cleared his throat and glanced at Hikaru before continuing. "Today is really just a celebration for us, and going through the process of making everything official. For several months now, Hikaru and I have been happier than we ever realized we could be. It is in no small part due to our friends and family being so supportive and, in some cases, forgiving. I hope everyone does realize that I never forgot things until Hikaru showed up in my life." He paused for a laugh from the audience. "We're going on a trip right after this, though Hikaru won't tell me where. When we get back, we're going to do the same things that we've been doing. However, we have big plans. We're currently in the process of finding a proper location for a go salon. Because of Hikaru, it's going to be called 'The 5 Club'. We want to cater to younger players and encourage the continued rise of play in Japan. And, Father? I apologize in advance for when we put you out of business." He looked at his father who smiled in return and gave him a slight bow.

Hikaru came up next to Akira and put a hand on the small of his back. "The day that I met Touya Akira, I thought 'Hey, it's a kid my age in a go salon, maybe I can play him instead of some old geezer'. What I didn't realize was that beneath the child-like exterior, he was already an old geezer." He smiled at Akira. "But as I got to know him better, I realized that he could be young, too, and foolish... And somehow that combination got me. I fell in love with him while I was still an insei, and didn't say anything to anyone. I like to think it was one of my more brilliant moves. The time came, one day, when everything fell into place. He agreed to move in with me. I fed him. And, everyone knows that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Tonight, we're going to Innoshima. A very few of you might realize why, on some level, but let's just say it has to do with go." He looked at Akira for a moment, then swept him up in his arms. "Now, this guy's coming with me. Thank you guys for coming. We'll open the gifts when we get back."

Akira blushed and put his arms around Hikaru's neck, knowing Hikaru wouldn't put him down anytime soon. "We're going to Innoshima? Isn't that where Shuusaku is from?"

Hikaru smiled and kissed Akira sweetly. "I figured that it was time for you to find out about Sai. This is the closest thing I can do."

"Are we going to meet him?"

Akira couldn't quite decipher the smile that came to Hikaru's lips as he said, "You already have."

There were questions, Akira decided, that even Hikaru would never be straight-forward in answering. But, so long as he would stay in Akira's life, there wasn't much to do about it. They would find a happily ever after, even if it was hidden in the Hand of God.


	16. Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Waya/Isumi sidefic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Waya laughed as Isumi's lips left his own. "I can't believe this."

Isumi sat down and licked his bottom lip. His eyes were caught up in staring at the floor. "I'm sorry."

"No... It's, um, okay. Really. It's just that, y'know... I wasn't expecting this. Was it because of those two?"

"If you're asking if homosexuality is a disease that I caught, then no. If you're asking if seeing them together made me realize that I have feelings for you and shouldn't hide them, then yes."

"Oh." Waya bit his lip and then looked up at Isumi. "Um, are you still spending the night?"

Isumi's eyes widened. "You still want me to?"

Waya laughed. "Maybe we're just like them. Because... I don't mind." He put his head in his hands and laughed even more. "Maybe I'm even more dense than either of them."

Smiling softly, Isumi put a hand on Waya's back. "I'm not going to ask you to move in with me."

"You shouldn't. My place is bigger, and those two are right next door."

"But they're still on their honeymoon right now."

Waya stood up and absentmindedly fluffed the pillows on the couch. "Do you think that you would have taken the same path if you could have known everything that would happen?"

Isumi grabbed Waya's arm and pulled him back onto the couch. "Knowing that I would become a pro go player and you would give me a chance? I wouldn't change a thing."

Their eyes locked for several long moments before Waya grinned. "I remember talking about how lucky Hikaru and Akira are to have go and each other. Maybe I'm just finally willing to realize that I can have the same thing. How long have you known?"

"I've liked you like this since the first time I watched you play Fukui. You were so brash and spastic... I couldn't help but keep an eye on you after that. It just happened. Like when you realize that you can win in five moves as long as you keep at it."

"Are we going to be the kind of dorky go couple that they are?"

"Probably." Isumi caught Waya's eye, questioning without words.

Waya sat back and grabbed one of the pillows he'd fluffed, holding it close to his chest. "I guess that sounds okay. I've maybe been a bit jealous that they play go all day long with people they love and never get tired of it." He turned to look at Isumi closely. "I don't get tired of playing you. I've always wondered how they could play so much... but I guess since it's been against each other..." He allowed himself to trail off.

Isumi nodded gently. "Maybe that's it. Maybe we'll become the kind of players that they are because of this."

"You aren't doing this just because of that, are you?" Waya's arms were crushing the pillow.

"No." Isumi reached out and touched Waya's arm, getting him to loosen his grip immediately. "But, it would be nice. We play good games, but I want to play great games, legendary games with you."

Waya gasped softly. "How can you say that kind of thing with a straight face?" He rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his hand. "We'll try this. And, we'll just wing it. We can tell everyone, or just let them find out... because we both know there's no keeping secrets among our friends."

Isumi glanced over at Waya and then slung his arm around the other man's neck. "I think that is in part because of you, though. I'm not sure you understand what 'secrets' are."

"Should it be a secret that I'm with you?"

"No. I couldn't bear to hold back about it anymore."

"This still feels like copying." Waya grinned.

Isumi pulled Waya closer and choked him jokingly with the arm he'd had around the other man's shoulders. "If anybody asks, we'll tell them we're playing a captain's game. After all, Hikaru and I are sort of the captains in these relationships, but you and he are more alike than he and I are."

Waya struggled out of the headlock. "All the more reason that I should be captain."

"I started this. I get to be captain for now." He smirked and released Waya. "But, later on, if it needs to, we can let it come to a vote. But, try me out as captain and see what you think."

"Hmph. Well, okay." Waya suddenly sat up straight and looked at Isumi. "Hikaru makes dinner as captain. So, therefore, you should make me dinner."

Isumi started rolling up his sleeves. "How do pancakes sound?"

"For dinner?" Waya's eyes were wide. "Sweet!"

Giving Waya a thumbs up, Isumi continued into the kitchen, but came out a few moments later. "Let's go shopping first."

"Why?" Waya grabbed for his keys anyway.

"Because you have nothing in your cupboards but three washcloths and a box of macaroni, and nothing in your fridge but leftovers from the wedding reception and a single can of soda. Oh, and an empty carton of milk."

Waya laughed. "What can I say? Hikaru and Akira invite me over for dinner a lot."

Isumi grabbed his jacket and handed Waya his own. "I guess I'll have to learn how to cook for a crowd as well. We can't seem to help but be friends with mooches, can we?"

"Isn't that why you're friends with me?" Waya raised an eyebrow.

"It must be." Isumi laughed as Waya tried to tackle him with his jacket half-on.

They joked into the hallway and down the stairs and on the way to the store, and by the time they were heading back in with arm loads of groceries, Waya was sure that even if Isumi wasn't a good cook, they might be able to work something out.


	17. Anniversary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One year after the end of Impatience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I mean no harm, I have no money... Stuff like that. Yeah.

Akira knelt in front of the grave and prayed under his breath. Hikaru was reverent next to him, holding his hands piously not toward the sky, but toward the grave.

On their honeymoon, only a year ago, Akira had finally found out who Sai was. It still seemed surreal. He remembered Hikaru pulling him to Innoshima and dragging him, without words, to Shuusaku's grave. "Akira... meet Sai."

There had been a lot of explaining, and a lot of Akira shaking his head and trying to come to terms with the fact that, really, it made everything make sense. They had ended up smiling and laughing at the gravesite. This year, they'd brought a picnic.

This year, shortly after they'd arrived, Hikaru had begun to clean the grave almost lovingly, and definitely with a practiced hand. Akira had watched him do it the year prior, but had been understandably preoccupied with his own thoughts. Now, he watched to understand the subtle nuances of Hikaru.

Things were much the same now as they had been then. They lived next to Waya. Isumi had recently moved in. They were playing in the same tournaments. They got to skip the preliminaries this time. Hikaru cooked and Akira cleaned. Their mothers fed them often enough that Hikaru started doing the laundry. They were happy. That hadn't changed at all.

After a bit of a media blitz, the go world quickly grew accustomed to the fact that it was, in fact, entirely possible for them to be lovers and rivals. Anyone who wasn't okay with it learned to keep their mouths shut as Hikaru and Akira turned into media darlings. Young girls came in droves to watch their go matches and usually knew better than to ask for tutoring when they only came to see real live yaoi-fied bishonen. (Some girls did take pictures, though, when Hikaru would lean over Akira's shoulder and whisper something into his ear.)

They were on their way to a happily ever after. The problem, then, came with the little things. Once Hikaru started doing the laundry, several of Akira's shirts disappeared. When Akira approached Hikaru about it, he was informed that a certain red shirt of Hikaru's had make it in with the whites, and since Hikaru wasn't sure which shirts were supposed to be pink, and which weren't, he just threw all of the pink ones away. "But I *liked* my pink shirt!" Akira had said as he straddled Hikaru on the floor while shaking a handful of clean socks at him.

Akira had given away three boxes worth of Hikaru's old issues of Weekly Shonen Jump. Hikaru had stopped speaking to Akira for nearly a week before he got tired of having to reach across the table for the salt instead of just asking. This was followed by a long talk about which objects weren't considered communal property (this including clothing and Akira's collection of murder mysteries).

Waya and Isumi had their own problems, and both couples regularly got together for dinner and a movie and a game of go. There was usually someone next door to talk to if one half of a couple made the other mad. Every now and again, though, they were bad neighbors. Their bedrooms were only a wall apart, and after a while both couples had a propensity toward getting frisky in the later parts of the evening. When one of the couples was too loud later on, the other would bang on the wall. After nearly four months of this, the wall crumbled as both Waya and Hikaru were banging on it. They had to split the cost of repairs, Waya and Hikaru needed medical treatment, and Isumi and Akira sighed in unison as they went to write checks for each.

For Hikaru and Akira, the sex only got better as time went on. They grew to know the places and things that made it best, from the spot at the base of Hikaru's neck where his heartbeat thrummed the strongest to the gentle way that Hikaru could coax Akira's legs enough wider to make things perfect.

Akira had grown out his hair at Hikaru's request. He kept it back in a neat ponytail with his bangs brushed off to one side. He hated it until Hikaru looked at him and brushed a strand of it back. That generally made him obsessed with his own hair for several days until the novelty wore off again.

Ashiwara and Nase had been engaged two weeks prior. Ogata had been released from prison, but had been stripped of his titles, and banned from playing professional go in Japan. Fukui had grown old enough to drink, had done so once, and had vowed never to do it again. He'd been nice enough to pay to replace the towels which had been sitting out in the bathroom.

And here they were, eating sandwiches in front of a gravesite. Hikaru had chosen to lay down with his head on Akira's lap. The sun was shining down on them, they had no plans for the rest of the weekend, and they were together. They would go home in a few days. They would start play in the Honinbou tournament. Hikaru would neglect to fold the clothes he took from the dryer so that Akira would have to iron them. But, that was life.

Life was the ins and the outs and the ups and the downs and, for them, it was being together and playing go and endlessly searching for more while knowing that if anyone could find it, it was them.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Podfic: In Which We Learn Touya Akira Is Not Fond of Fuzzy Cuddly Things](https://archiveofourown.org/works/526827) by [mmmdraco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco)




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